How Different Is Erdogan’s New M.E. Policy?

In Recognition of Rima Al-Sabah›s Social Activism in Washington

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Turkey’s Plan to Return Syrian Refugees Home Questioned

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Boehly and Abramovich: Americans Taking Over from the Russians in Chelsea

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Editorial Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time in years.

After meeting with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, Erdogan remarked that the visit was “the manifestation of our common will” to improve ties and strengthen political, military, and cultural relations. The visit came in line with the new Turkish approach to mend ties with neighboring Arab countries.

In this week’s cover story, Dalia Ziada examines how much Erdogan’s new Middle East policy is different from his previous policy, particularly that of the past decade. She also explains how recent world developments: Ukraine war, economic pressures caused by Covid19-, and American withdrawal from Afghanistan came to allow the new alliance between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar to form a “greater mosaic of power in the Middle East region.”

The world is still observing the updates of the Russian war on Ukraine which is distinctly extending to the virtual arena of social media. Meera Ravi explores how a “tech war is surging” where every party “seeks to wrest control of the story.” She writes about the Russian response to blockade imposed by international social media apps, as major tech companies have started to flag what they call “Russian disinformation and propaganda.” Russian-created social media apps have emerged to provide parallel platforms. Still, Meera questions the stance taken by Big Tech, if they are merely “posturing in favor of democracy or a real liberal stand?”

The pressing global challenge of climate change is the topic of another article published this week. Salwa Samir reviews a recent study that highlights a severe impact of climate change on Egyptian monuments, particularly those located near waters. From Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Old Cairo’s antiquities to Luxor’s temples that overlook the Nile, Salwa interviews a researcher who elaborates on the dangers looming over these historic places and the solutions of such problem.

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla.com.

As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

A Weekly Political News Magazine

42 Tehran Uses Blackmail to Shield Iranian Officials’ Crimes

Issue 1904- May- 13/05/2022

Central Asia’s Security and

26 the Transition in Afghanistan

46 Fun Loving Criminals ?

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60 Royal Academy of Dance: Conveying Passion for Dance Through Elegance and Beauty

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Russia Scrambles to Seize War Story by Controlling Internet

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Climate Change Threatens Egyptian Antiquities

54 Scroll Smarter to Protect Your Mental Health

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State Opening of the British Parliament in London Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (2nd R) reads the Queen›s Speech as he sits by the Imperial State Crown (2nd L), Britain›s Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (R) and Britain›s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (L) in the House of Lords chamber, during the State Opening of Parliament, at the Houses of Parliament, in London, on May 10, 2022. /AFP

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FIFA World Cup Trophy display at the Katara cultural village in Qatar Children pose for a photo next to the FIFA World Cup Trophy while on display at the Katara cultural village in Qatar›s capital Doha on May 10, 2022. /AFP

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SAU

PALESTINE

EGYPT Five Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants on Wednesday in northern Sinai, the second deadly strike against security forces on the peninsula in less than a week, and the military said it had carried out air strikes in response.

Four others were injured when armed men opened fire early on Wednesday morning at a security post on the coast of northeastern Sinai a few kilometres away from the border with the Gaza Strip, two security sources said.

The deaths follow a May 7 ambush at a checkpoint in Sinai that killed 11 Egyptian soldiers and was claimed by Islamic State, one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that Israeli authorities were "fully responsible" for the killing of a veteran Al Jazeera reporter during clashes in the occupied West Bank and called for an international investigation.

Shireen Abu Akleh suffered a gunshot wound to the head in Jenin on Wednesday. Al Jazeera and Qatar, where the news network is based, accused Israeli troops of the killing.

Israel, which has voiced regret at Abu Akleh's death, said it was looking into the killing and that the fatal shot might have been fired by a Palestinian gunman. It has proposed a joint investigation with the Palestinians, asking them to provide the bullet for examination.

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The Muslim Wednesday among Reli around 100 Riyadh.

Attendees draw emph between hu tolerance a religious an Participant for the nee around the

UDI ARABIA

m World League (MWL) launched on y the forum of "Common Values igious Followers", in the presence of 0 religious leaders and scholars in

are participating in the forum to hasis on human dignity, just equality uman beings, and the necessity of and understanding when it comes to nd cultural differences. ts in the interfaith forum also called ed to promote peace and solidarity e world.

UAE Oil market volatility is linked to factors outside the control of the OPEC+ producers group, such as moves by some buyers to boycott certain suppliers, the United Arab Emirates' energy minister said on Tuesday, alluding to Western curbs on Russia.

"Extreme volatility is not because of supply and demand, it's because some don't want to buy certain crudes and it takes time for traders to move from one market to another," Suhail al-Mazrouei said at a utilities conference in the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) capital, Abu Dhabi.

IRAQ Iran's Revolutionary Guards artillery fire hit an area north of the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Erbil on Wednesday, targeting what Iranian state television described as terrorist bases.

Iraqi Kurdish media reported that a shell had landed in a village in the Sidekan area near the Iranian border, around 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Erbil.

Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the Iranian shelling, which it said targeted some locations in the Sidekan area.

The Iranian state TV said no casualties had been reported.

IRAN Iran abruptly raised prices as much as 300% for a variety of staples such as cooking oil, chicken, eggs, and milk. Scores of alarmed Iranians waited in long lines to snatch up bundles of food and emptied supermarket shelves across the country in the hours before the price hike took effect.

Panicked shoppers raided stores and stuffed basic goods into large plastic bags, according to footage shared widely on social media. Lines in Tehran snaked out of grocery stores late Wednesday. On Thursday, Iran’s currency dropped to a low of 300,000 rial to the dollar.

Internet disruptions were reported across Iran as the government braced for possible unrest, advocacy group NetBlocks.org said.

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A WEEK ACROS CANADA.

U.S. President Joe Biden will host Southeast Asian leaders in Washington this week as his administration seeks to show it can maintain its focus on the Indo-Pacific and the long-term challenge of China despite the immediate crisis in Ukraine.

A two-day summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) begins with a White House dinner on Thursday before talks at the State Department on Friday.

All 4,000 people in the Northwest Territories town of Hay River were ordered to evacuate as floodwaters reached the community’s downtown area.

Chief April Martel of the Kátł’odeeche First Nation on Wednesday ordered her entire community to leave and head south toward the town of Enterprise as parts of western Canada struggle with some of the worst flooding in decades.

The city of Yellowknife opened an evacuation center for people leaving Hay River in search of safety, and in Fort Providence the Big River gas station assisted evacuees through the night.

Other people seemed to be heading for northern Alberta.

“Some had very little warning and had to react quickly to stay safe, while leaving their home, their possessions and, for some, their business to endure the water and ice,” Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane and Municipal Affairs Minister Shane Thompson said in a statement Thursday.

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TUNISIA.

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday appointed new member the election commission, to be headed by Farouk Bouasker, the official gazette said, entrenching one-man rule and casting doubt o electoral integrity.

Saied said last month he would replace most election commission members, seizing control of one o last independent bodies in the No Africa country.

Saied had already dismissed parliament and taken control of th judiciary after assuming executive authority last summer, saying he could rule by decree in what his opponents denounce as a coup.

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his on

n of the orth

he e

UKRAINE. NORTH KOREA.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and discussed defensive aid, energy sector cooperation and increasing sanctions on Russia.

"We appreciate the high level of dialogue with Germany and support in our struggle!" he said in a tweet.

A German government spokesperson said Scholz had stressed in the call that it was up to Russia to immediately end hostilities in Ukraine, withdraw troops and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

INDIA. Rescuers in India's western Gujarat state are picking up dozens of exhausted and dehydrated birds dropping everyday as a scorching heatwave dries out water sources in the state's biggest city, veterinary doctors and animal rescuers say.

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At least one person confirmed to have COVID-19 has died in North Korea and hundreds of thousands have shown fever symptoms, state media said on Friday, offering hints at the potentially dire scale of the country's first confirmed outbreak of the pandemic.

About 187,800 people are being treated in isolation after a fever of unidentified origin has "explosively spread nationwide" since late April, the official KCNA news agency reported.

Roughly 350,000 people have shown signs of that fever, including 18,000 who newly reported such symptoms on Thursday, KCNA said. About 162,200 have been treated, but it did not specify how many had tested positive for COVID-19.

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How Different Is Erdogan’s New M.E. Policy ?

Region Transitions into New Geopolitical Structure

By Dalia Ziada

The restoration of brotherly relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia should not be taken lightly. It is not merely a political reconciliation between two states that had once been in competition.

Rather, it is a remarkable decision by two giant regional powers to join forces in rescuing the Middle East from the uncertainties that have been overwhelming the world stage for a while.

After months of slow diplomatic exchange between the Turkish and Saudi governments that initially started in November 2020 on the margin of the G-20 Summit in Riyadh, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by his senior state officials,

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Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, center right, welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center left, before a meeting in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, April ,28 2022. (Bandar Aljaloud/ Saudi Royal Palace via AP)

including Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan, paid a remarkable visit to Riyadh on April 28th.

Fortunately, the recent political developments on the world stage, and their direct economic and security consequences, have pushed Turkey to change its flawed policies towards the region. In more than one public statement over the recent months, Turkish President Erdogan admitted that Turkey is not benefiting from strained ties with Arabs, especially in the Gulf countries. “We need to start a new era in foreign policy, marked by making friends rather than enemies out of the countries with which we share similar thoughts and beliefs,” Erdogan stated.

Before his plane took off to Saudi Arabia in the last week of Ramadan, President Erdogan reiterated: “We express at every occasion that we place as much importance on the stability and security of our brothers in the Gulf region as our own… Dialogue and cooperation are necessary for the security and stability of the entire region as threats are growing more and more complex.”

The mutual need for economic and defense cooperation, under the magnifying pressures of the changing global order, is believed to be the key motivator behind this long-delayed rapprochement. However, the prospect of a long-term fruitful cooperation between these two important regional powers extends way beyond their immediate interests on the bilateral level.

The Saudi-Turkey decision to finally work together is expected to have a tremendous influence on the future of the Middle East and the surrounding regions where the two countries are central players, and also more broadly on the Mediterranean and Africa.

The Saudi-Turkey decision to finally work together is expected to have a tremendous influence on the future of the Middle East and the surrounding regions where the two countries are central players.

following the hasty and chaotic withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. The main characteristic defining the new regional order, in light of this unavoidable transition, is the fracture of Egypt and Syria as the main complementary poles responsible for keeping the region in balance, and the growing reliance on Arab Gulf monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia, in designing and leading the future of the Middle East.

The growing pressures of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, and then the global standoff resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of this year, breaking the yearslong political impasse in the region, combined to allow a space for a new alliance of rivals to form. This coalition of odds, which started to take shape after accomplishing the Gulf reconciliation, highlighted by the signing of Al-Ula Declaration in January 2021, is composed of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar. Each pair of these four countries stand at opposite spots on the spectrum of political agenda and national BONDING THE COALITION OF ODDS strategic goals. However, each of them holds a piece of the geopolitical, geo-economic, and the military suBy mending the broken ties with Saudi Arabia, Tur- premacies that comprise the greater mosaic of power key has successfully ticked one of the most important in the Middle East region. checkboxes on its revised foreign policy agenda, and Together this quartet of odds can contain Iran and also integrated the missing piece of the puzzle in the mitigate the threats constantly raised by its militia, “coalition of odds” that is anticipated to lead the fu- currently wreaking havoc all over the region. They ture of the Middle East for decades to come. can dominate the flow of world trade movement For better or worse, the Middle East region is rapidly across the Red Sea and the Mediterranean thanks to transitioning into a new geopolitical structure, with their unique geographic locations and economic outnew centers of influence and diverse agendas of indi- reach in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It is needless to vidual and collective priorities. The ongoing transi- mention their dominance over the majority of world’s tion process started over a decade ago with the erup- energy resources. And above all, they can form an untion of the Arab Spring revolutions (2010 - 2011), beatable regional military coalition enhanced by the and reached a peak last summer in August 2021, NATO experience that Turkey enjoys and the massive

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dent Erdogan to sign this new page.

By contrast, the deadlock between Cairo and Ankara seems to be too tough to break with the same ease that Turkey experienced with other regional rivals. “We TURKEY-EGYPT IMPASSE already have relations [with Egypt] but at a low level In the thrust of this awakening momentum, Turkey between our diplomatic and intelligence services. Rehas also been relentlessly reaching out to Israel and lations between our business people also continue.

Egypt, despite the extensive record of disagreements Positive results [of Saudi-Turkey rapprochement] inwith each of them on the political agendas and the dicate that these steps can be taken at a higher level,” strategic objectives which are defining their models Erdogan said, following Eid Al-Fitr prayers, in reof governance. The installation of a new government sponse to a journalist’s question about the future of in Israel that accommodates Israeli, Arab, and Islamic Turkey’s reconciliation with Egypt. politicians made it easier for Ankara and Tel Aviv Before Erdogan’s Ramadan visit to Saudi Arabia, the to start a new page. In March, Israeli President Isaac Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a public Herzog was warmly welcomed to Ankara by Presi- statement inviting his Egyptian counterpart to have Iftar together. However, it seems that the invitation fell on deaf ears. The month of Ramadan has come to an end without a response, or even a media statement, from the Egyptian Foreign Minister. Meanwhile, one of the prominent satellite stations affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood group and working from Istanbul has announced its closure at the end of April.

The closure of this station was on the list of requests made by the Egyptian state in order to resume the reconciliation process with Turkey. Yet, Egypt has not made any response to this positive move by the Turkish side. Likewise, some of the media outlets working from Cairo, and funded by Abu Dhabi, who attack Ankara, were notified in March to stop attacking the personnel and armament capabilities of both Turkey and Egypt.

Erdogan’s newly adopted foreign policy in the Middle East, that is based on turning rivals to friends rather than turning friends to foes, is very promising.

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Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabian, April 28, 2022. Picture taken April 28, 2022. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2022. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via REUTERS

Turkish state leadership. Some of them had to close their businesses, as a result.

The diplomatic relation between Turkey and Egypt was painfully severed in 2013, against the background of Turkish presidential support for the falling regime of the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, economic relations continued and even improved throughout these last nine years. Under the effect of the peace trend that has been dominating the region over the past year, Turkey and Egypt, which used to take conflicting sides in the Arab Gulf conflict, started to consider fixing their own broken ties.

Since then, only two reconciliation meetings were held between diplomatic bureaucrats in Cairo and Ankara, but they led to no tangible progress on the ground.

The irony here is that although the Egypt-Turkey reconciliation is still stumbling on a muddy road, each of Turkey and Egypt were separately able to reconcile in a record time with their rivals in the Arab Gulf region .

The deadlock between Cairo and Ankara seems to be too tough to break with the same ease that Turkey experienced with other regional rivals.

with his new foreign policy in the Middle East.

When Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey in 2002, most Arabs were impressed by the idea that a political leader with an Islamist background could lead a democratic country with success. Turkey’s geographic proximity, familiar history, and cultural and religious similarities with the majority-Muslim countries of the Middle East, enhanced this perception. However, this positive perception was dramatically altered by Ankara’s POLITICAL ISLAMISM flawed policy towards the region in the post Arab Erdogan’s support to the political Islamist organiza- Spring era. Erdogan’s sharp bias towards Arab polititions that sought power in the post Arab Spring era cal Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood is the main topic around which the rift was formed in Egypt and Tunisia, at the expense of preserving between Turkey and Arabs, instigating nine years of healthy state-to-state relationships with Arab states, diplomatic tensions and media wars. Therefore, it is led to alienating Turkey in its Middle East milieu. Afimportant to think about how the Turkish President ter being seen as a role model, Arabs started to look at is planning to balance his political Islamist ideology Turkey as the “other Iran” in the region.

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One of the core issues that Erdogan failed to understand at that time was that political Islamism in Turkey, Malaysia, or Indonesia is very unsimilar to political Islamism in the Arab countries, for many political and social reasons. One interesting story to prove that happened in Egypt only a few months after the fall of Mubarak.

In mid-September 2011, the then Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdogan, visited Egypt and some other Arab Spring countries to celebrate the change and transfer his successful experience with the AKP to the young people who initiated the Arab Spring revolutions. In Egypt, Erdogan was festively received by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and was given the exclusive advantage to speak directly to a public audience at the Cairo Opera House.

Erdogan’s support to the political Islamist organizations that sought power in the post Arab Spring era is the main topic around which the rift was formed between Turkey and Arabs.

On an interview with the Egyptian television, during his visit, Erdogan advised the revolutionary youth to “build a secular state based on a new constitution founded on secular principles.” He presented Turkey as an ideal model for a democratic state, as he is a Muslim Prime Minister leading a secular state that respects an individual’s right to be religious or not. Erdogan also expressed his confidence in Egypt’s ability to build a modern state after the revolution based on three pillars – good public management, improving education, and appropriate organization of state wealth to eliminate corruption.

Erdogan’s moderate speech was widely applauded by the political elite and public citizens. However, only one group got offended by Erdogan’s words about democracy and the secular constitution. That group was the Muslim Brotherhood, the political Islamist group that once claimed to be the Egyptian version of the Turkish AKP. The Muslim Brotherhood leaders responded to Erdogan’s speech with hostile media statements such as “Egypt does not want advice from Turkey or Erdogan.” On his arrival to Cairo, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood youth members and leaders lined up outside the airport to receive him. On his departure, they threw stones of contempt and resentment at him, only because he did not promote their version of a political Islamism that is hostile to democracy and the civil state.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed alNahyan during an official ceremony in Abu Dhabi, February 14, 2022. AFP

Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hamdi Sanad Loza (background) meets with his Turkish counterpart Sedat Onal (Foreground) in the foreign ministry headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo on May 5, 2021.

(Getty)

Moral of the story – political Islamism model in Turkey is inapplicable in Arab countries. The deeply rooted secular values and constitutional basis since Turkey’s foundation can easily force the Islamist party in power to abide by its rules. However, this was not possible in the case of Arab Spring countries, where political Islamists are on the far-right edge of ideological extremism and the countries they wanted to rule were torn apart by revolutions and collapsed political structures.

THE CHANGE TO LOOK FOR After all these years of tensions and misunderstanding between the three angles of the triangle of Turkey, Arabs, and the political Islamist groups, it appears that Turkish President Erdogan has finally found the error that delayed the acceptance of Turkey as a leading big sister in the Middle East context.

Erdogan’s newly adopted foreign policy in the Middle East, that is based on turning rivals to friends rather than turning friends to foes, is very promising. In the short term, this new policy is expected to play an effective role in enhancing Erdogan’s image in the upcoming election 2023 race, as a result of the economic boost and the domestic and regional political stability it is expected to yield.

However, for this policy to bear fruit in the long term, there are lots of political compromises that

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The installation of a new government in Israel that accommodates Israeli, Arab, and Islamic politicians made it easier for Ankara and Tel Aviv to start a new page. should be made by both Turkey and its new allies in the regional coalition of odds. One of these compromises requires President Erdogan to give up on his bias towards the Arab political Islamists, and go back to his old self that once captured the hearts and the minds of the Arab and Muslim people around the world. Whether this change is going to actually happen and how it will be received in the Arab world after nine years of media wars, are questions that only time and experience can answer. * Dalia Ziada is an Egyptian author and Director of the Liberal Democracy Institute. Her work covers military affairs, political Islamism, and geopolitics in the Middle East and North Africa. Tweets at @ daliaziada.

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Turkish assistant professor Ali Zafer Sağıroğlu

Turkey’s Plan to Return Syrian Refugees Home Questioned Erdogan’s Task to Get Rid of Opposition Pressure Difficult

By Jiwan Soz – Al-Qamishli Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this week that institutional surveys have shown that more than one million Syrian refugees wish to return voluntarily to their country.

This portends security arrangements that pave the way for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Syrians before Turkey witnesses presidential and parliamentary elections during summer next year.

The Turkish president is trying to satisfy his potential vot-

ers who oppose the presence of Syrian refugees on Turkish soil, by talking about the “voluntary return” of more than a million Syrians who were forced by the war to seek refuge in Turkey in the past years.

Thus, he is trying to prevent the parties opposing him from using the refugees’ issue in the coming vote if he manages to deport large numbers of them before holding the elections.

Erdogan also said earlier this week that his country is going to construct 200,000 housing units in 13 areas on Syrian territories with funding from international relief organiza-

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A Syrian refugee mother puts her baby into a stroller in Nizip refugee camp, near the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey, November 2016 ,30. REUTERS/ File Photo

tions. On the other side, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stressed the importance of confronting the establishment of these housing units and warned of a demographic change that could lead to a civil war, especially since three of the cities in which the Turkish president intends to establish these housing units have a Kurdish majority.

Turkish assistant professor Ali Zafer Sağıroğlu, director of the Migration Policy Center at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University confirmed that the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party is facing pressure over the presence of Syrian refugees in Turkey, especially with the establishment of new political parties that oppose the presence of refugees in the country.

Sağıroğlu described the task of the Turkish president, who plans to return more than a million Syrian refugees to their country, as “difficult.”

Here is the full interview that Majalla conducted by phone with the Turkish academic residing in Ankara.

Q: Can the Turkish president return a million Syrian refugees to their country before the elections scheduled for next year?

A: Earlier various opposition parties refused the presence of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Moreover, the tension in Tur-

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key’s politics has recently risen as a new anti-immigrant party emerged. That triggers out a louder discussion about the refugees, mainly Syrians. Also, other parties in the opposition moved to raise their voice against the Syrians and other refugees, such as the Afghans and Pakistanis as well.

This makes a quite pressure on the ruling party. The recent discussion is about whether Erdogan can send Syrians to Syria. It is not easy, but might be possible given some domestic changes in Syria.

Q: How can Erdogan encourage refugees to return to their country?

A. Everybody is wondering how they will manage to send them back to Syria. But nobody knows exactly how they will do it. And there is no clear plan about the situation yet. Maybe they will encourage people by giving them some houses, some properties there.

As far as we know, the construction of these houses or settlements in northern Syria is provided by the civil society, not by the government directly. These NGOs are also gathering some support from different actors to construct the houses.

And today Erdogan announces that they intend to construct 100,000 houses in northern Syria. Clearly, it is not so much a burden on the Turkish economy as it seems now. It seems

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that this would be handled through the NGOs.

chaired by Erdogan regarding the return of refugees?

Q: What is the Turkish president’s goal in returning refugees to Syria?

A: There was a government meeting in Turkey, that was going to prepare a roadmap on how they will manage returning one million Syrian refugees to Syria. But there is not much detail about it. However, the Turkish President’s statement was important, as he said that we will never hand them over to the murderers and we will not get rid of them. It means that we will provide the conditions in which the Syrians can go back voluntarily to safe region, in the northern part of Syria in which the Turkish army provides security.

A: In fact, there was discussion about the Syrians, but it didn’t rise in that level until this year. There’s a new party that is pressing on the government about the perspectives of the Syrians in the future in Turkey.

So, is the goal of Erdogan to alleviate the pressure, particularly that it comes amid the pandemic, the inflation and the bad economic indicators. In addition, people are quite angry and frustrated about the economic difficulties.

Q: What were the outcomes of the government meeting

“Erdogan announcement means that we will provide the conditions in which the Syrians can go back voluntarily to safe region, in the northern part of Syria in which the Turkish army provides security.”

Although opposition parties always say that they will talk with the Assad regime to send back people to Syria, Erdogan is the only figure in Turkish politics who would never say that they will send back the people to the regime area.

Q: With the return of these refugees, what is the fate of the Ankara agreement with the European Union on Syrians?

A: We are talking about nearly 4 million refugees. If Erdogan managed to send back 1 million, that means that about 3 million will continue to stay in Turkey. It is not a small number. Thus, the EU has to think more about supporting the coming Turkish government whether it is led by Erdogan or other parties. Actually, the rising tensions in Turkey make these refugees change their minds and move to Europe. And the European Union cannot be sure that in the near future another similar flow like that of 2015 or 2016 will not happen.

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FILE PHOTO: A general view of Nizip refugee camp, near the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey, November 2016 ,30.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas

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pinion

Are We Truly Globalized?

By Saif Al-Abri

The concept of globalization seems to transform from a virtue of modern societies to a mere extension and tools used by power systems to achieve their interests .

Globalization is an extremely ambiguous term that has been redefined and re-constructed.

The champions of globalization define it as the phenomena of increasing integration and interaction among economies and societies of different countries; this’s evident by international trade and foreign investment represented by institutions such as the IMF, World Trade, World bank etc. They state that such phenomena are the inevitable product of the rise of technologies; as such, any criticism of globalization is seen as backwards. However, is that really the case? are we actually globalized, and was it technologically driven? As always, skepticism is always healthy, especially against preconceived conceptions.

Firstly, to claim that globalization was technologically driven is really hard to defend.

The economist historian Dr Ha-Joon Chang noted that the 1914-1870 liberal era of steamship and telegraph economies were significantly more liberal and globalized than the mid20-th century (1973-1945). Whereby in the mid20-th century, there was significant protectionist policies and restriction on capital movement, yet at that time, it was labelled as the golden era of globalization (due to high growth rates); they then slowly globalized and increased trade as their industries became established. As such, he concludes that its political institution›s economic policies that determine the degree of globalization rather than it being an inevitable product of technology.

In addition, it further shows for a country to develop, it must protect its market from global competition.

Furthermore, what I mean by globalization being redefined and re-constructed is that everyone defines it to what best suits their interest. It could easily be argued that, in a sense, globalization predates what we call globalization. This is if you define it as the integration and cooperation of economies, examples as Professor Noam Chomsky stated the silk road which was an extensive form of globalization. However, if you count the interwind complex structure of

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supply chain, outsourcing and capital movement (in order to find the cheapest configuration), investors right and joining the “free trade” as actually globalized, then we are globalized. Yet it’s really hard to make a claim and state that we are past imperialism, globalized and in the age of competition when as stated by the economist Dr Sean Starr, USA corporation dominates in almost every sector, with a %48 ownership.

Another side of globalization is its view that industrialization is the only way forward for true progress. This conception dominates the nature of trade agreements, FDI’s and loans, in summary, the policies of globalized institutes. An example to demonstrate this, is India’s agriculture free trade agreement. Over the past 20 years it has resulted in 300,000 farmers committing suicide. This’s because of reduced subsidies, the inability to afford modified seeds and being vulnerable to the uncertainties and volatility of the market. Furthermore, MNCs’ expansion (e.g.

Monsanto) into the Indian agriculture market and industrialization through USAID replaced rice fields with Monsanto’s GM Maize using false slogans such as “save the water”. However, as known, such artificial seeds require excessive fertilization and pesticides leading to poor soil moist retention, killing bees, contaminating water and much more. It’s impossible to adequately highlight the injustices and depth of the Indian agriculture issue; however, it is clear that industrialization has done more humanitarian harm than good.

As seen, when inspected, the concept of globalization seems to transform from a virtue of modern societies to a mere extension and tools used by power systems to achieve their interests.

The contradictions of globalization should be obvious from the modern invention of borders which didn’t exist in the past. I conclude that for us to really call ourselves globalized, then power and wealth concentration should be equally distributed over the six continents -excluding Antarctica- rather than the two.

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Central Asia’s Security and the Transition in Afghanistan

Respite from Afghan Concerns Might be Coming to an End

By Bruce Pannier

although the Taliban and Uzbekistan said the claim was false.

The Taliban are losing control in northern Afghanistan to the Islamic State. In the past few months, the terrorist group has carried out a Transition in Afghanistan

The deteriorating security environment in northern Afghanistan is bad news across the border in Central Asia. Since regaining power, the Taliban have repeatedly assured the governments in Central Asia that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used for attacks against Afghanistan’s neighbors. This understanding with the Taliban provided a measure of stability in the chaotic aftermath of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer.

series of bombings at Shia mosques in Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif, killing dozens. The Islamic State released a video of a rocket attack from Afghan territory toward military targets in Uzbekistan,

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Central Asia’s connectivity with Afghanistan is much greater than it was when the Taliban were in power in the late 1990s.

As a result, Central Asian governments can’t ignore what’s going on across the border. The potential gains now seem to outweigh the risks of working with the Afghan militant group, though this looks to be tested as violence increases in northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban have rivals in northern Afghanistan who are bombing mosques and exploiting the Taliban’s mistreatment of ethnic minorities there. Central Asia’s brief respite from Afghan concerns might be coming to an end.

INSTABILITY GROWS On April 21, the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) carried out bombings of Shia mosques in Mazar-i-Sharif, some 60 kilometers from the border with Uzbekistan, and in the city of Kunduz, some 50 kilometers from the border with Tajikistan. Nearly 80 people were killed.

Taliban fighters pictured in Laghman Province.

They began a lightning offensive earlier this year. (Photo: Getty Images)

ISK also claimed responsibility for an apparently botched attack targeting Uzbekistan. On April 18, ISK posted a video on the internet that the group said was evidence of a rocket attack launched on Uzbekistan from the Afghan border town of Hairaton (https:// www.voanews.com/a/islamic-state-khorasan-claims-rocket-attack-on-uzbekistan-/6534866.html ). The Taliban quickly denied the ISK claim. Uzbek presidential spokesman Sherzod Asadov released a statement on April 19 saying, “information disseminated by some Telegram channels about the alleged rocket fire from the territory of Afghanistan… is absolutely untrue (https:// uzdaily.uz/en/post/72500 ).”

The so-called Islamic State’s (IS) Amaq news agency released a statement, claiming that 10 rockets had been fired at a military site on Uzbek territory and posted a photo of militant who carried out the attack.

On April 20, Uzbekistan’s gazeta.uz website published an interview with Taliban deputy spokesman Inamulla Samangani.

He said a group of ISK militants did fire rockets from Hairaton toward Uzbekistan, but none of the rockets made it across the Amu-Darya, the river that divides Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

Samangani noted, “Their (ISK militants) location has been established. Two or three of them were detained with several rockets.”

He added that “two or three rockets” were fired, but repeated these rockets “did not reach the border of Uzbekistan (https:// www.gazeta.uz/ru/2022/04/20/afghanistan-border/).”

The gazeta.uz report continued that some “Afghan media” were not only reporting the rocket attack did happen but were also reporting that Uzbek warplanes crossed the border in the wake of the attack and flew as far as Mazar-i-Sharif, and that Uzbek military helicopters were also seen over the Amu-Darya and Hairaton. Links to videos of what were purportedly the Uzbek military aircraft were included in the report.

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Since regaining power, the Taliban have repeatedly assured the governments in Central Asia that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used for attacks against Afghanistan’s neighbors.

A separate article mentioned that people in and around Termez, the Uzbek city across the Amu-Darya from Hairaton, confirmed there were Uzbek warplanes flying over on April 18. One local resident, speaking under condition of anonymity to RFERL’s Uzbek service, said some rockets had landed on Uzbek territory, and another resident said Uzbek warplanes were regularly flying over the area in the days after the rockets were fired (https://rus. ozodlik.org/a/31813286.html).

Since regaining power, the Taliban have repeatedly assured the governments in Central Asia that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used for attacks against Afghanistan’s neighbors.

That is really the foundation of the understanding the Central Asian states have with the Taliban. Samangani repeated this promise when speaking about the ISK rocket attacks, but he also confirmed that ISK did in fact use Afghan territory to try to attack Uzbekistan.

Stability in northern Afghanistan will be important if the Taliban hope to maintain their informal truce with their northern neighbors, but the predominantly ethnic Pushtun Taliban are already finding it difficult to bring this region inhabited mainly by Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities under control. And some of the Taliban’s allies in northern Afghanistan are more worrying to the Central Asian governments than ISK is. Jamaat Ansarullah, for instance, is terrorist group from Tajikistan that claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber attack in the northern Tajik city of Khujand in September 2010 that killed four people. The Tajik government launched a crackdown on suspected Jamaat Ansarullah members and since then the group has been operating alongside the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

Tajikistan has never opened communications with the Taliban.

President Emomali Rahmon is the only leader of countries bordering Afghanistan who was in power the first time the Taliban were controlling Afghanistan. His government helped the forces of ethnic Tajik Ahmad Shah Masoud to resist the Taliban in the late 1990s. Rahmon would find it difficult to change his position toward the Taliban now, particularly since his government continues vilifying and repressing more mod-

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erate Islamic groups inside Tajikistan.

RADICAL ROOTS IN CENTRAL ASIA

Tajik officials have warned for years about foreign militant groups in northern Afghanistan, including Jamaat Ansarullah. After the Taliban returned to power, the Tajik government strengthened its forces along the Afghan border. It also conducted a series of military drills near the border, including exercises with Russian and Uzbek forces. Rahmon gave awards to the Taliban’s bitter foes of the late 1990s, Rabbani and Masoud, after the two men were killed (https://rus.ozodi.org/a/31440158.html). Mohammad Zahir Aghbar, the last Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan from former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government, is still at the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe and is allowed, occasionally, to speak publicly about former government soldiers’ continued resistance against Taliban rule.

Jamaat Ansarullah was once the Tajik wing of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group formed by Uzbeks who fought on the side of the Islamic opposition during the 19921997 Tajik civil war. The 1997 Tajik peace accord that ended the war called for the opposition to disarm by summer 1999, which left the foreign fighters in the Tajik opposition in a precarious situation.

In September, the Taliban sent reinforcements, including Jamaat Ansarullah fighters, to guard sections of the Tajik border (https:// rus.ozodi.org/a/31476419.html ). This predictably increased the Tajik government’s hostility toward the Taliban.

A North-South route is particularly important to Central Asia now as the route to Europe through Russia is complicated by sanctions European countries imposed on Russia for the war on Ukraine.

After bombings in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on February 16, 1999, the Uzbek government launched a crackdown that saw thousands of Muslims imprisoned. Many fled and some went to Tajikistan where the Uzbeks who had fought in the Tajik opposition were still based. They formed the original IMU and announced their goal was to overthrow Uzbekistan’s government.

Unwelcome in Tajikistan, the IMU made incursions into southern Kyrgyzstan in summer 1999. The following summer, the group made inroads into southern Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan.

Under pressure from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the Tajik government moved to close down IMU sanctuaries in Tajikistan’s mountains and the Taliban provided the IMU shelter in northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban had reasons for helping the IMU. The Uzbek government helped its enemies — the forces of ethnic Uzbek Afghan field commander Abdul Rashid Dostum in Mazar-i-Sharif. Even after the city fell and Dostum fled, Uzbekistan continued to do what it could to oppose the Taliban. The IMU campaigns of 1999 and 2000 distracted the Uzbek government’s attention from Afghanistan.

The IMU remained in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 and were still there after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The IMU suffered

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First officially released photos of Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani on Saturday. (Photo: AFP)

A screenshot of Uzbek militants pledging allegiance to IS.

heavy losses in the U.S. bombing of northern Afghanistan in November 2001. Most survivors fled to Pakistan’s tribal areas. After the IMU claimed responsibility for the June 2014 attack on the Karachi airport, Pakistan’s military launched operations against militants in the tribal areas. Many of the IMU fled back into Afghanistan, some joining IMU bands that had remained there under the command of Jamaat Ansarullah, while others joined Taliban units in northeastern Afghanistan.

The ISK is seeking to capitalize on the growing dissatisfaction among ethnic Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks against Taliban rule in northern Afghanistan.

Most IMU militants that remained in Pakistan’s tribal area were led by Usman Ghazi, who swore allegiance to the IS militant group. Ghazi’s IMU group also returned to Afghanistan in 2015, some to the Zabul area where they were annihilated in November 2015. Another IMU group loyal to IS went to Herat and also suffered heavy losses. The surviving Uzbek militants scattered across northern Afghanistan.

about ethnic Pushtun Taliban evicting ethnic Turkmen and Uzbeks from their homes and seizing their livestock started coming from northern Afghanistan.

The Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), formed in 2005, is another IMU splinter group. The IJU is believed to still be active in northern Afghanistan and at least was allied with the Taliban. The IJU also aims to overthrow the Uzbek government, but the group has not claimed any attacks in several years.

Katibat Imam al-Bukhari — another IMU spin-off — was created in the Afghan-Pakistani border area in 2011. Many of its militants went to Syria in 2014 and fought alongside al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusrah. By 2016, however, most left for northern Afghanistan and were believed to be operating in the Faryab and Jowzjan provinces that border Turkmenistan.

BAD TALIBAN GOVERNANCE HELPS THE ISLAMIC STATE The Islamic State benefits from the Taliban’s failures and missteps.

Just weeks after the Taliban regained power, videos and reports

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In January 2022, the Taliban arrested Makhdum Alem, an ethnic Uzbek Afghan Taliban commander in the northern Faryab Province who played a large role in convincing local leaders and elders to side with the Taliban in the last months foreign forces were in Afghanistan. The Taliban said Alem was suspected of involvement in a kidnapping.

Alem’s arrest sparked a revolt among the largely ethnic Uzbek population in the Faryab provincial capital Maimana. Four people were killed in the shooting that broke out. Residents of Maimana eventually disarmed the Pushtun Taliban fighters and forced them to march out of the city. The Taliban sent reinforcements, reportedly including a squad of suicide bombers, to Faryab (https://www. indianarrative.com/world-news/taliban-deploys-suicide-bombersto-quell-uprising-in-afghanistan-s-faryab-province-143621.html).

The stand-off lasted for four days before a truce was negotiated, but in the meantime the Taliban angered some of ethnic Tajiks in northern Afghanistan by arresting Qori Wakil, an influential local ethnic Tajik leader. The Taliban did not say what the charges were against Wakil.

The ISK is seeking to capitalize on the growing dissatisfaction

among ethnic Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks against Taliban rule in northern Afghanistan. Already in October 2021 there was a report on ISK attempting to find new recruits among the ethnic minority groups of northern Afghanistan near the Tajik border (https://www.bomdod.com/ru/2021/10/18/smi-igil-nachalo-verbovku-boevikov-na-granice-s-tadzhikistanom/). Some citizens of Tajikistan had left for Syria and Iraq to join IS starting in 2014.

The IS “minister of war” was Gulmurod Khalimov, a colonel in the elite OMON unit of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry until he defected to IS in 2015. Khalimov released several videos denouncing Tajik authorities, whom he called “dogs,” for their harsh treatment of the country’s Muslims and urged citizens of Tajikistan join IS. Khalimov was reportedly killed in 2017, though rumors he is still alive continue to this day. And IS claimed an attack on foreign bicyclists in Tajikistan in July 2018 that left four of the bicyclists dead (https://www.npr.org/2018/07/31/634220250/isis-claims-responsibility-for-deadly-attack-on-cyclists-in-tajikistan?t=1651503145965).

The five attackers were all Tajik nationals.

A recent report said ISK efforts to recruit ethnic Tajiks in northern Afghanistan and in Tajikistan continue and that the group is openly

The governments in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will continue to pin their hopes on the Taliban bringing stability to Afghanistan.

talking about overthrowing the Tajik government (https://thediplomat.com/2022/04/islamic-state-in-afghanistan-looks-to-recruitregional-tajiks-inflict-violence-against-tajikistan). The report also noted ISK is putting a new emphasis on releasing material in Tajik and Uzbek languages as part of this recruitment campaign.

Another report in December said ISK was looking for new recruits among the Uzbek population of northern Afghanistan (https:// eurasianet.org/perspectives-islamic-state-continues-anti-talibanpr-push-with-tashkent-in-crosshairs). ISK propaganda reportedly stresses that the Taliban are a Pushtun movement that does not respect the culture and traditions of the minority groups in northern Afghanistan. And ISK propaganda also targets the Uzbek government for its cooperation with the Taliban.

ISK briefly had a foothold in northern Afghanistan in 2016 when a disaffected ethnic Uzbek local Taliban commander in the northern Jowzjan Province named Qari Hikmat swore allegiance to IS and carved out an ISK area in the Darzab district. Hikmat gatheredsome of the fighters from Usman Ghazi’s IMU who had participated in the disastrous attacks on the Taliban in Herat Province in 2015. Until he was killed in April 2018, Hikmat’s ISK group fought battles against the Taliban and Afghan government forces and even extended the ISK area of influence into the neighboring Faryab Province, where Hikmat was killed. A new ISK leader was named (Qari Habibul Rahman), but the group vanished from reports after Hikmat’s death.

This is another problem the predominantly Pushtun Taliban face in northern Afghanistan. Not only might ISK propaganda appeal to the local minority populations, but the foreign Central Asian fighters as well. The Central Asians are mostly Tajiks and Uzbeks, well-armed and battle-hardened, whose sympathies could be expected to lie with their ethnic kin in any disputes in northern

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Afghan security officials stand guard during a ceremony in which people belonging to different political parties distributed gifts and souvenirs to Afghan forces to encourage their fighting for the country, in Herat, Afghanistan, 5 July 2021. (EPA-EFE/ JALIL REZAYEE)

Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov (left) meets with acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul on October 7. (Photo: RFE/RL)

Afghanistan. The Taliban might see them as a potential threat, particularly if ISK is successful in finding recruits among the local Tajik and Uzbek populations of northern Afghanistan.

NORTH OF THE BORDER The increasing violence in northern Afghanistan, and the knowledge that ISK are behind much of it, must be disconcerting to the Central Asian governments who were hoping peace with the Taliban might be a guarantee for safety at home.

Since August 2021, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have sent official delegations to Kabul to meet with Taliban representatives.

The deputy chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council, Taalatbek Masadykov, was on a regional tour that included a visit to Kabul last month and he led the Kyrgyz delegation that was there in late September 2021. The Turkmen and Uzbek foreign ministers have travelled to Kabul to meet with representatives of the “Afghan government.” None of the Central Asian governments called it the “Taliban government.”

But it is no surprise that ISK would choose to attack Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan has the best lines of communication with the Taliban of all the Central Asian states. After Shavkat Mirziyoyev became Uzbekistan’s president in late 2016, the Uzbek government readjusted its policies toward Afghanistan. Mirziyoyev’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ismatulla Irgashev, met with Taliban representatives in November 2018 in Moscow, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov met with Taliban representatives in Doha in March 2019, and in August 2019, Uzbekistan hosted a Taliban delegation for talks in Tashkent that were followed by visits to the ancient Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Du-

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Stability in northern Afghanistan will be important if the Taliban hope to maintain their informal truce with their northern neighbors shanbe on September 17, 2021, barely one month after the Taliban seized Kabul, Uzbek President Mirziyoyev called for frozen Afghan assets in foreign banks to be unfrozen and for the new Afghan government to have access to them. Uzbekistan reopened the Termez border crossing with Afghanistan and the first cargo crossed into Afghanistan on September 1, 2021. Taliban representatives and Uzbek officials have met several times since in Termez to discuss customs regulations and other border matters. In December 2021, Uzbekistan sent technicians to help repair equipment at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport so it could resume operations (which it did at the end of March).

AN EYE TOWARDS THE FUTURE The Uzbek government’s attitude toward the Taliban is a striking change to Tashkent’s position when the Taliban first seized power in Afghanistan. There was panic in Central Asia in September 1996 when the Taliban captured Kabul. The Uzbek government of then-President Islam Karimov was the loudest in warning of the dangers that would come from a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

It’s likely that none of the Central Asian governments were pleased with the Taliban coming to power again in Afghanistan in 2021.

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All five countries had played some role in helping the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. U.S. troops were stationed in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and French forces briefly used part of the Dushanbe airport in Tajikistan. But all five must have been considering the possibility during the previous decade as foreign forces in Afghanistan were gradually exiting the country that the Taliban could eventually be victorious.

During the 20 years the Taliban were not in power in Afghanistan, the connections with Central Asia grew and that is a huge reason why most of the Central Asian governments, and particularly the Uzbek government, are taking a more pragmatic approach to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan than they did in the late 1990s.

Power transmission lines were built to export electricity from all the neighboring Central Asian states to Afghanistan after 2001.

Afghanistan imports 73 percent of its electricity (https://www. adb.org/sites/default/files/linked-documents/46392-001-ssa.pdf).

Nearly 60 percent of that electricity comes from Uzbekistan (17 percent from Turkmenistan and 4 percent from Tajikistan) and in 2018 construction started on a new 500-kV power line from Surkhon, Uzbekistan to Pul-e-Khumri in Afghanistan that, if finished, would boost Uzbekistan’s electricity exports to its southern neighbor by an additional 70 percent (https://www.gazeta.uz/ ru/2020/10/22/power-line/).

The Taliban said shortly after returning to power that Afghanistan could not pay for that electricity but would do so when it could.

Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan have accepted this and continue to send electricity to Afghanistan in what some view as a move to appease the Afghan militant group. However, the Central Asian governments are aware Afghanistan is experiencing a humanitarian crisis and cutting off electricity would anger not only the Taliban but millions of Afghan citizens who benefit from this electricity.

The increasing violence in northern Afghanistan, and the knowledge that ISK are behind much of it, must be disconcerting to the Central Asian governments who were hoping peace with the Taliban might be a guarantee for safety at home.

When the Taliban were taking control over Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the only Central Asian government that was not hostile toward the Taliban was Turkmenistan’s government. Turkmenistan had just received UN-recognized status as a neutral state in December 1995 and while no one was sure what that meant at the time, the Turkmen government used it to proclaim its neutrality in the Afghan conflict when the Taliban seized Kabul. The country was guided by economic interests, namely construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline that would carry some 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas annually to the three countries (Afghanistan 5 bcm, and Pakistan and India 14 bcm each). But the project was only possible if there was stability in Afghanistan.

Neutrality worked then, and Turkmenistan, while never formally recognizing the Taliban government, did allow the Taliban to open a representative office in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, and construction of TAPI was more possible then than it has ever been since.

Neutrality has not been enough to shield Turkmenistan from the violence in Afghanistan during the last eight years. Three Turkmen borders were killed along the Afghan frontier in February 2014, and three Turkmen soldiers were killed, and their weapons stolen in May that same year in an attack on a different section of the border. It was never clear who was responsible for those attacks. ut after those incidents the Turkmen government started to strengthen its forces along the Afghan border and purchasing new weapons from Turkey, China, and other countries. Turkmen border guards shot dead an Afghan civilian at the end of December 2021 and were involved in a shoot-out with Taliban forces in the same area several days later, though Turkmen government and Taliban officials quickly swept the matter under the rug.

The Uzbek government seems to have taken a page from Turkmenistan’s foreign policy book of the 1990s and views Afghanistan as a necessary transit country in plans for a brighter economic future.

As a result, it is necessary to deal with whoever is in power in Afghanistan, at least so long as there is no threat against Uzbekistan that emanates from Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan is especially interested in construction of the Mazar-iSharif to Peshawar railway project. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan came to Tashkent for a July 15-16, 2021, conference on connectivity in South and Central Asia and spent time on the sidelines discussing construction of the approximately 570-kilometer railway project with Uzbek President Mirziyoyev. The two discussed it again on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Dushanbe. Representatives of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan agreed in early February to a roadmap for the project.

Uzbekistan has a rail connection to Afghanistan that runs from Termez across the Dustlik (Friendship) Bridge, built in 1982 to supply

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Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace on 15 August 2021, after president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

(Photo: AP/Zabi Karimi)

Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The railway originally went only a few kilometers inside Afghanistan, but an extension to Mazar-iSharif was completed in 2011. Construction of the Mazar-i-Sharif – Peshawar railway would connect Uzbekistan to Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea, opening a long-desired North-South trade route between Central Asia and the Indian Ocean. The railway line through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan also connects to China, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and to Europe as part of the former Northern Distribution Network that NATO used for supplying troops in Afghanistan. Such railway connections potentially mean millions of dollars for Uzbekistan just in transit fees.

A North-South route is particularly important to Central Asia now as the route to Europe through Russia is complicated by sanctions European countries imposed on Russia for the war on Ukraine.

Russia’s war in Ukraine appears likely to drag on for some time and sanctions will likely become more severe as the conflict continues. A new trade route south would compensate at least somewhat for the partial loss of Central Asia’s trade routes west.

CENTRAL ASIA OUTSOURCING ITS SECURITY TO THE TALIBAN The governments in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will continue to pin their hopes on the Taliban bringing stability to Afghanistan. Uzbekistan’s response to the attempted ISK attack suggests that the Uzbek government, at least, is willing to go a little further in shoring up Taliban control when it is in both parties’ interests.

The Uzbek government has not commented on reports the coun-

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try’s military aircraft were sent the area of the alleged attack. If those reports are true, it raises some interesting questions. It seems unlikely Uzbekistan sent military aircraft over Afghanistan without informing the Taliban, or perhaps being requested to do so by the Taliban. That would suggest a new level of cooperation has been reached between the two parties, at least concerning ISK. But if the Taliban cannot stop the violence in northern Afghanistan, or if some group does succeed in launching an attack from Afghan territory on a neighboring Central Asian state or crosses the border into one the countries to carry out terrorist attacks, it is difficult to see how that would not change the Central Asian governments’ policies toward Afghanistan and the Taliban. An uneasy truce is easy to shatter and confidence can be hard to restore, but none of the Central Asian countries want ISK gaining control of areas in north Afghanistan near or on the Central Asian border. And if the Taliban lose influence with the Central Asian militants allied to them, what would those Central Asian militants do next?

The Central Asian governments have been contending with the shifting political landscape in Afghanistan ever since they became independent in 1991. They are surely pondering various scenarios that could develop from the recent growing instability in northern Afghanistan. For the sake of Central Asia’s security and hopes for expanded trade south, the best prospect at the moment seems to be support the Taliban and hope they can get a tighter grip on northern Afghanistan. * This article was originally published by FPRI and can be found on www.fpri.org

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In Recognition of Rima Al-Sabah’s Social Activism in Washington

How the Diplomat’s Spouse Recast Arab Woman’s Image in World’s Most Powerful Capital

By Mohammad Ali Salih – Washington Last week, Rima Al-Sabah, wife of Salem AlSabah, Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, and a former Lebanese journalist, held her last major international reception, concluding 21 years of Arab and Muslim activism in the US, as her husband’s official tenure came to an end.

Two of her opinions about America, 15 years apart, illustrated her story in America: In 2007, she told “Vanity Fair” magazine: “We came to Washington three weeks before September 11, and what happened was a shock. On September 12, I had a lunch invitation … The first question I was asked was ‘Did you see what you Arabs did?’ I was horrified.”

Last week, she told “The Washington Post”: “I have embraced Washington, and it has embraced me back. All you have to do is reach out and embrace … It has been an amazing, fabulous ride.

I’ve loved every minute of it.”

“Vanity Fair” contrasted the husband, “a softspoken ambassador”, and his wife, the “intense and flamboyant, with platinum-blond hair down to the middle of her back”.

Within a few years after their arrival, the husband jumped to the front row of foreign diplomats in Washington, thanks to the strong relations between the two countries that faced a strong test in 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the US led a military coalition that liberated Kuwait.

On her part, Rima cultivated Washington’s social scene, befriending first ladies, top government officials and members of Congress, men and women. In 2007, when she gave birth to her fourth child (at age 45), invitations to the first of four baby showers were mailed four months in advance, and 120 women attended.

Rima’s activism didn’t only cross gender, but, also, political differences, in the world’s most important capital. As of 2009, when she was named by “The Washingtonian” magazine as one of the

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ugees who had fled their country, because of the US-led invasion in 2003, and wanted to return home; to improve educational opportunities for children in Afghanistan; and to build schools for girls in remote parts of Pakistan.

In 2011, “The New Republic’’, a liberal magazine asked “Why Washington’s Elite Loves Rima AlSabah Parties.” The report started by describing her “uncannily smooth skin, full lips, enormous brown eyes, and a thick mane of long gold hair”.

But the report quickly jumped to the list of her guests throughout the years that included: Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. and Laura Bush, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi, former Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry, Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Sandra Day O’Connor and Stephen Breyer; also, Hollywood Stars Ben Affleck, Michael Douglas, and Angelina Jolie.

Needless to add, Rima family’s wealth has been a major factor in helping her towards achieving her goals, and, thereby, scoring more points than the Arabs and Muslims known for rhetoric, confrontation and unfulfilled promises.

And that has been exactly what worked – and needed -- in Washington: lavish parties, sophistication and personal relations.

Sheikha Rima AlSabah (KUNA)

100 most distinctive women in Washington in the field of advocacy and nonprofit work.

She was the only Arab, and only foreigner, to make the list.

But, aware of the Americans’ stereotype of Arab and Muslims, her activism, smartly enough, avoided being only about Arabs and Muslims.

In 2005, she started an Annual Gala Dinner to raise money for different causes: to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); to United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF); to Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere); to reduce malaria in Africa; and to fight climate change.

Within these organizations, she helped Iraqi ref-

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In 2011, Eliza Gray of “The New Republic” visited Rima at her home, and quoted Buffy Cafritz, a longtime Washington socialite, reading from a menu she’d saved from a recent luncheon with Rima, and saying. “She served asparagus vichyssoise and sea bass and pureed potatoes and a raspberry sorbet”.

Gray described her own visit to Rima: “She showed me the fountain room, where large parties are held, on intricate aqua-green, red, and turquoise floor tiles which were imported from Positano, Italy … We sat on an ornately upholstered sofa, and she served me Middle Eastern finger food. Rima told me that the seating plan for the large party took three days to arrange. On the first day, she conducts a three-hour session

with diagrams of twelve tables of twelve people.

On day two, she makes strategic moves. Day three is for finalizing the plan and last-minute change”.

For Rima and her husband, apparently the strategy of elegance and sophistication worked better than that of confrontation, because Rima, throughout the years, continued to receive high marks from her guests – and from the media.

In 2011, “The Washingtonian” magazine put her as one of the most powerful women in Washington, and, again, in 2013, and, again, in 2019.

In 2015, “The Washington Life” magazine, also,

Rima’s activism didn’t only cross gender, but, also, political differences, in the world’s most important capital. She was named by “The Washingtonian” magazine as one of the 100 most distinctive women in Washington.

put her as one of Washington’s most prominent women.

But most of the praise came from officials of the organizations that received donations from Rima’s Annual Gala Dinner, like UNHCR, UNICEF and Project HOPE. She received praise also from a variety of Arab and Muslim organizations, like WISE (Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality), a branch of the New York-based American Society for Muslim Advancement “(ASMA) Last week, First Lady Jill Biden was the guest of honor at the Annual Gala Dinner, which this time raised about a million dollars for a United Nations program assisting Ukrainian refugees.

The event was attended also by CIA Director William J. Burns, UNHCR’s Filippo Grandi, actor Ben Stiller, Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, members of Congress and corporate executives. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to give remarks, but he canceled at the last minute after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Rima described the evening to “The Washington Post” as “the perfect example of what you can accomplish with relentless determination, an incomparable team, and the support and generosity of amazing friends and partners.”

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Sheikh Salem AlSabah, Ambassador of Kuwait to the US (L) and Sheikha Rima Al-Sabah (2nd L), with UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban, at the Annual Gala of the Kuwait-America Foundation on 11 March 2012. (Photo credit: flickr)

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Climate Change Threatens Egyptian Antiquities

New Study Calls for Proactive Measures to Save Ancient Cities, Artifacts

By Salwa Samir Climate change has become a major concern for many governments, as scientists and civil societies keep raising alarms of its irreversible life-threatening effects every new day. While preparations are underway for the coming cli-

mate summit COP27 in Egypt later this year, one recent study warned about the impact of increasing world temperature and subsequent climate changes on Egypt’s antiquities which date back to thousands of years.

Egyptian archaeologist Abdel Aziz Salem, professor and head of the Islamic Antiquities De-

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Moezz street in historic Cairo houses dozens of Islamic monuments dating back to the Fatimid Caliphate (1171–909) until Mohamed Ali era (1805 1952-). (Photo by Salwa Samir)

partment at Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology and international expert on heritage, warned in a new study of the dangers of climate change on the safety of Egyptian antiquities of all kinds: Pharaonic, Christian, Jewish and Islamic, whether those located in coastal cities or those overlooking the Nile River.

The study was done after observing the bad effect of climate change on antiquities in the past six months.

“The effect of every month of the last six months equals the effect of a year. All of the antiquities built on the banks of the Nile River and the coastal cities are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change,” Professor Salem told Majalla.

Among the affected areas which need urgent solutions to save them is Historic Cairo, one of the world’s oldest Islamic cities, which includes no fewer than 600 classified monuments dating from the 7th to 20th centuries. The area was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979.

“I can say that Historic Cairo is floating on a lake of groundwater,” Professor Salem said.

“When the Cairo Metro Line 1 was constructed in the 1980s, many concrete barriers were erected in that area which caused an obstruction to sewage disposal into the Nile. So the volume of groundwater has increased and lies under the buildings of this area. Over time the water level imbalance has also been accelerated by the rain.

“This has a bad effect on antiquities in this area which were built from limestone, especially the facades, inscriptions and decorations on the structures. We observed a change in their condition in the last six months as compared to their state six years before. We noticed underground water traces on the facades of antiquities in Moezz Street,” he said. This street houses dozens of Islamic monuments dating back to the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171) until Mohamed Ali era (1805 -1952).

Similarly, the coastal city of Alexandria is greatly vulnerable to risks due to climate change, according to his study.

He mentioned that during his participation last November in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the same warning

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Among the affected areas which need urgent solutions to save them is Historic Cairo, one of the world’s oldest Islamic cities, which includes no fewer than 600 classified monuments dating from the 7th to 20th centuries. that when temperature rises only four degrees, “we will say goodbye to entire cities, which are Miami, Alexandria, and Shanghai, they will all sink underwater.”

Salem agreed, saying “Egypt should make proactive precautionary measures urgently.”

His study suggests erecting a huge concrete steel mesh that opens and closes like a bridge to protect Alexandria from being submerged.

“The increase in the temperatures at the North Pole leads to the melting of ice and will thereby increase the level of seawater, which will flood coastal cities,” he said.

His study also suggested establishing a strong network for draining water, the same as needed for Historic Cairo which would enable it to endure the heavy rains expected in the coming period due to climate change.

GERD AND SAFETY OF ANTIQUITIES Moving to south of Egypt, Professor Salem said that Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will have grave consequences on the UNESCO-registered cultural sites in Upper Egypt, especially Luxor.

“Many archaeological sites in Luxor are located on the two sides of the Nile and only a few meters from the water, such as Karnak Temple and Abu Simbel Temples. The GERD causes water retention and when the groundwater increases or even decreases it will cause soil disturbance and harm those antiquities,” he said.

“We need to measure the level of water in the

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Luxor Temple. Many archaeological sites in Luxor are located on the two sides of the Nile and only a few meters from the water. (AFP)

soil regularly and to deal with any change immediately,” he suggested.

He also called upon the government to involve UNESCO in this regard as Luxor is among UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

“We need to involve UNESCO and call for adding a protocol to the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage to identify the risks of climate change and to provide an international mechanism to protect the archaeological sites from impact of climate change,” Salem said.

Recently unearthed artifacts are on display in well-equipped museums, a new environment that protects them from any danger. What will happen to remaining antiquities that haven’t been discovered yet?

BURIED ANTIQUITIES Salem hailed the continuous excavations and discoveries made by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. He said that these artifacts were unearthed and are on display in wellequipped museums, a new environment that protects them from any danger.

However, he wondered about the case of remaining antiquities that we haven’t discovered yet.

“According to researchers, we unearthed just one third of the antiquities Egypt has, what is the fate of the remaining antiquities? Will we increase the efforts to discover more in the coming period? Will we be able to do this in a short time?

“Unfortunately, the answer is that climate change will reach it sooner or later.

“I hope that the pace of climate change will be slow enough to give concerned officials the opportunity to act and take proactive measures,” he said.

EGYPT HOSTS COP27 The Red Sea’s Sharm El Sheikh will be the venue for the upcoming UN Climate Change Confer-

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The coastal city of Alexandria is greatly vulnerable to risks due to climate change, according to a recent study.

Karnak Temple. Many archaeological sites in Luxor are located on the two sides of the Nile and only a few meters )from the water. (AFP

ence 2022 (COP 27) in November.

Professor Salem hopes that Egypt will take this golden opportunity to protect the antiquities from climate change.

“During the conference, Egypt will be a venue where all global climate experts gather and

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share together research and international experiences. We must take this opportunity to benefit from their research results and try to apply them on coastal cities and archaeological sites vulnerable to the harmful imprint of climate change,” Salem said.

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pinion

Tehran Uses Blackmail to Shield Iranian Officials’ Crimes

By Mehdi Akbaei

For years, the world has been hearing about human rights violations in Iran, and global condemnation and even sanctions against the regime have failed to change the lives of Iranians.

The appeasement policy and refusal to hold Tehran accountable for its crimes both at home and abroad has effectively created systemic impunity for Iranian state officials, and even those involved in terrorist attacks knew how to safely return home.

However, things have begun to change since 2018. The Iranian regime’s diplomatic envoy, Assadollah Asadi, who was the third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Austria, was arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting a bombing against the Free Iran rally in Paris.

He was tried by the Belgian judiciary and is currently serving a 20-year sentence in prison in Belgium.

Hamid Nouri, a former prison guard, was arrested in Sweden in 2019 for murder and war crimes in connection with his active role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran.

The majority of these detainees belonged to or supported Iran’s main opposition, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedin-eKhalq (MEK).

During the trial’s final days, Swedish prosecutors emphasized Nouri’s role as one of those implicated in the 1988 genocide by citing the harrowing testimonies of MEK supporters and members who survived the massacre, as well as prisoners of Marxist groups. Prosecu-

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tors demanded that Nouri be sentenced to life in prison.

The trial and eventual conviction of Nouri can be described as a historical development in Iran’s Popular Resistance. This movement, launched in 1988 by the leader of the Iranian resistance, Massoud Rajavi, and continued in 2016 by the head of the Iranian opposition, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, calls for the arrest of all criminals involved in this crime, including the current regime’s leader, Ebrahim Raisi.

Sensing the dire consequences of Nouri’s trial, the Iranian regime is now using blackmail to overturn the court’s decision. As the Stockholm court announced that Hamid Nouri’s sentence would be announced by mid-July, the Iranian regime played its final card: the execution of Ahmad Reza Jalali, an IranianSwedish citizen who has been held hostage in Iran since 2016.

The semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported on Wednesday that Jalali would be executed on May 21 for “espionage for Israel.” Jalali, a disaster medicine physician and researcher, was detained in Iran in April 2016 while on an academic visit. His arrest, like that of another dual national, is part of Tehran’s blackmail strategy. However, Tehran denies that the latest announcement is related to blackmail.

According to Iranian state television, the regime’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, demanded Nouri’s immediate release during a phone call with his Swedish counterpart. Stockholm also tried to prevent

Mohsen Rezaei, the former head of the mullahs’ guards, told the Iranian regime’s state TV channel Meanwhile, “Sweden and the European Union on July 13, 2015: “Another issue is that Americondemn the death penalty and demand the re- cans must recognize that they cannot conduct lease of Jalali. We have repeatedly told Iranian military operations against Iran... If the Ameriofficials this. We are in contact with Iran.” Swed- cans intend to attack Iran, make sure we arrest 1,000 of them in the first week and force them to ish Foreign Minister Anne Linde tweeted. pay a billion dollars each. This may solve many This is not the first time that Iran’s ruling hard- of our economic problems, but I advise them not liners have used blackmail as a diplomatic tactic. to consider it.”

The regime did the same when Tehran’s terrorist The Iranian regime’s and the mullahs’ guards’ diplomat, Assadollah Asadi, was about to be sen- hostage-taking strategy - Hassan Abbasi’s January 2020 speech. tenced to 20 years in prison in 2020.

Tehran from proceeding with the death sentence.

The mullahs began their rule in 1979 with the fa- To counter the mullahs’ blackmail, there is a need mous Iranian hostage crisis, and hostage-taking for European and international awareness, folsoon became the modus operandi of their regime. lowed by determined action. The world must see how firmly Tehran will respond when it is punIran’s ruling theocracy has long used dual citizen- ished for terrorism and human rights violations. ship as a scapegoat to achieve its nefarious goals.

In other words, Tehran intends to rescue Nouri Nouri’s trial is significant, but it is only the first while obstructing the justice movement through step. Europe, like Raisi, must demand greater accountability and hold criminals accountable. hostage-taking or deception.

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As the Stockholm court announced that Hamid Nouri’s sentence would be announced by mid-July, the Iranian regime played its final card: the execution of an IranianSwedish hostage .

A Weekly Political News Magazine

Issue 1904- May- 13/05/2022

Boehly and Abramovich: Americans Taking Over from the Russians in Chelsea

www.majalla.com

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Fun Loving Criminals?

Bridgerton’s locations hold a few guilty secrets

Oh, what fun we had, back in the eighteenth century! (Blind man›s bluff 1803)

By: Bryn Haworth Bath is a small gem of a city in the west of England, named after hot springs which exist nowhere else in the British Isles – the other spas are all cold.

I have known the place, and worked there on occasion, for twenty years now, and still it has the capacity to surprise me every time I go back. The locals are friendly and polite, but then one could say this of most provincial English towns. The buildings, made of the yellow and gold local limestone, are beautiful. But more than this, there is something about the atmosphere in Bath that gives one a sense of wellbeing. People have a burning desire to talk. Dropping into the smallest of Bath’s many pubs, the Coeur de Lion, you will almost certainly find yourself included in the

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conversation there. The Bell on Walcot Street is the same. In fact, entering any of the watering holes across the city is like the conversational equivalent of crossing a river with Heraclitus, you can never step into the same one twice. Some places also provide a full range of newspapers, as if to ensure against pauses in the flow of talk, but it’s really a waste of money: the patrons would talk incessantly if you marooned them on a desert island where the only reading material arrived in bottles. People feel a remarkable compulsion to socialise.

If all this is beginning to sound like a tourist brochure, I am definitely wasting ink, or what used to be ink. Judging by Bath’s visitors, the whole world knows very well what the town has to offer. The streets have been filled with pleasure seekers for centuries. At present, it’s the turn of the Arabs and the Chinese predominantly. In antiquity, it was the Romans 13/05/22

who, having discovered with dismay that Britannia was the land of ‘eternal winter’, came here armed with strigils to bathe in the hot springs.

The ‘King of Bath’ Richard Beau Nash made his reputation by the way he dressed. He dared to be different, and has an entirely new way of dressing.

Stray musicians aside, many more people have got to know about Bath through its literary connections, most notably with Jane Austen, who lived here and has a small museum dedicated to her. She mentions Great Pulteney Street in Chapter Thirteen of Northanger Abbey, along with the unusual superpower of her heroine:

The Roman baths

Later, flying in the face of received wisdom, medieval visitors did their ablutions here. And in the eighteenth century, first royalty and then the fashionable classes came, to bathe, to dance and to flirt. Each family’s arrival was welcomed by the bells of the abbey. If they greeted everyone in the same manner now, the bellringers would drop dead by Tuesday.

The entire town, most of which was built after the abbey, is consecrated to the pursuit of fun, and the lead singer of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Huey Morgan, resides in the Royal Crescent. At first this might sound improbable, but it serves as proof that he really is fun-loving.

‘The general attended her himself to the street-door, saying everything gallant as they went downstairs, admiring the elasticity of her walk, which corresponded exactly with the spirit of her dancing, and making her one of the most graceful bows she had ever beheld, when they parted. Catherine, delighted by all that had passed, proceeded gaily to Pulteney Street, walking, as she concluded, with great elasticity, though she had never thought of it before.’

Majestic pavements of Pulteney Street

Royal Crescent

It is absolutely incumbent upon every young woman who claims to be an avid fan of Jane Austen to emulate Catherine’s elasticity when they come to Bath, preferably all the way down that incredibly grand boulevard.

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But I shall come to Pulteney Street in a second; it can tell us a lot more about the town than Austen was letting on. ‘Tis said – if you’ll excuse my archaic turn of phrase – that the novelist was not partial to Bath, having encountered snobbery there perhaps, or on account of her aversion to balls, I don’t know for sure, but she didn’t like it.

She could be in a minority of one. Bath continues to enchant most people, and many of the scenes in the wildly popular Bridgerton series (available on Netflix) are set there: the sweep of the Crescent, with Huey himself winking in the background; a couple of old shop fronts; the Palladian splendour of Holburne Museum – all these are glimpsed as the characters take liberties with history in a veritable orgy of anachronisms.

Duke in Bridgerton, played by Regé-Jean Page. People like us

But more of that anon. Jane Austen would have been too late to catch the architect of all this fun, the legendary Beau Nash, as he had fallen into a sad decline and died back in 1762, thirteen years before she was born, but this was the man who, more than anyone before or since – with the possible exception of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, but that’s a whole different story – managed to embody the fun of the place. He was what the Romans would have called its spiritus loci.

Nash laid out a set of rules, tongue-incheek, but they serve as an indication of the carnival role he played with the men and women of quality and breeding who gave themselves over to his misrule.

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Richard Nash. Very regal

Richard ‘Beau’ Nash was known, indeed, as the King of Bath, and his death threw the town into mourning so deep that they splashed out on a lavish funeral and buried the old beau in the abbey. This was quite a surprising display of reverence, given the poor reputation beaus had, among the literati at least. Here is Jonathan Swift’s view of them: ‘Yesterday I ordered the carcase of a beau to be stripped in my presence; when we were all amazed to find so many unsuspected faults under one suit of clothes. Then I laid open his brain, his heart, and his spleen: but I plainly perceived at every operation, that the farther we proceeded we found the defects increase upon us in number and bulk’ (Tale of a Tub).

Such satirical sneers would not have been welcome that day in Bath, though they were immaterial anyway, as Jonathan Swift had himself died some seventeen years previous. Instead, the deceased ‘King’ was praised by innumerable poets and obituarists, including the novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith, who gave a solemn account of his friend’s virtues and vices. He went into some detail, for example, on the issue of Nash’s gambling habit.

But the gambling was not how Nash made his reputation. That was, of course, the way he dressed. He dared to be different. Instead of the customary white wigs of the time, the Beau’s was black beneath a beavertrimmed hat worn at a raffish angle, whilst his braided and laced coat was worn open to show off his waistcoat and ruffled shirt. This was an entirely new way of dressing, and only the Beau had the bravado to carry it off. Aside from the clothes, however, Goldsmith is brutally frank in his description of Nash’s appearance: ‘Nature had by no means formed Mr Nash for a Beau Garçon, his person was clumsy, too large and awkward, and his features harsh, strong, and peculiarly irregular, yet even, with those disadvantages, he made love…’

I think we can assume this phrase has the rather chaste meaning of the time… ‘…became an universal admirer of the sex, and was universally admired.

He was possessed, at least, of some requisites of a lover. He had assiduity, flattery, fine clothes, and as much wit as the ladies he addressed.

Wit, flattery, and fine clothes, he used to say, were enough to debauch a nunnery. But my fair readers of the present day are exempt from this scandal, and it is no matter now, what he said of their grandmothers.’

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and garrulous – that Bath retains to this day, was undoubtedly first bequeathed to it by the Beau. It was Nash who built the Assembly Rooms where the characters in Bridgerton meet, and where their Georgian counterparts gathered to dance the minuet, gently advised by the ‘King’ with regard to the niceties of dress. He was bitterly opposed to the wearing of boots, which made men look like they’d just dismounted, and even more so to the carrying of swords: ‘…as they often tore the ladies’ clothes, and frighted them, by sometimes appearing upon trifling occasions. Whenever therefore Nash heard of a challenge given, or accepted, he instantly had both parties arrested.’

The women’s fashion choices were also policed, regardless of the lady’s status: ‘He had the strongest aversion to a white apron, and absolutely excluded all who ventured to come to the assembly dressed in that manner. I have known him on a ball night strip even the duchess of Q, and throw her apron at one of the hinder benches among the ladies’ women; observing, that none but Abigails [presumably, a name associated with servants] appeared in white aprons. This from another would be insult, in him it was considered as a just reprimand, and the good-natured duchess acquiesced in his censure, and with great good sense, and good humour, begged his Majesty’s pardon.’

Nash laid out a set of rules, tongue-in-cheek for the most part, but they serve as an indication of the carnival role he played with the men and women of quality and breeding who gave themselves over to his misrule.

‘Rule 10. That all whisperers of lies and scandal, be taken for their authors.’

There was a lot of it about. ‘Several men of no character, old women and young ones, of questioned reputation, are great authors of lies in these places, being of the sect of levellers.’ As kings go, Beau Nash resembled a divinely anointed Stuart, more than he did a levelled Hanoverian.

Here is another rule, suggesting the qualities that were most prized in his court: ‘Rule 8. That the elder ladies and children be content with a second bench at the ball, as being past or not come to perfection.’

One wonders how easily any of the revellers owned up to that definition. Entirely serious or not in his framing of the rules, Nash could be insistent: ‘Even the royal family themselves had not influence enough to make him deviate from any of these rules. The princess Amelia once applying to him for one dance more, after he had given the signal to withdraw, he assured her royal highness, that the established rules of Bath resembled the laws of Lycurgus, which would admit of no alteration, without an utter subversion of all his authority.’

Lycurgus of Sparta. Not known for his frivolity

The entire town of Bath is consecrated to the pursuit of fun, and the lead singer of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Huey Morgan, resides in the Royal Crescent, which proves he really is fun-loving.

Lycurgus of Sparta was not the only lawmaker Goldsmith is reminded of. He writes this about the way Nash dealt with the trivial tittle-tattle and bitchiness of a milieu one would nowadays expect to encounter in the wings of fashion show: ‘He endeavoured to render scandal odious, by marking it as the result of envy and folly united. Not even Solon…’

Solon cropped.

Not famed for his levity

(Once again, Goldsmith plucks a respectable name from antiquity and applies it to the foppish master of ceremonies. This must have killed them on the after-dinner circuit) ‘Not even Solon could have enacted a wiser law in such a society as Bath. The gay, the heedless, and the idle, which mostly compose the group of water-drinkers, seldom are at the pains of talking upon universal topics, which require comprehensive thought, or abstract reasoning.

The adventures of the little circle of their own acquaintance, or of some names of quality and fashion, make up their whole conversation.’

These denizens of Bath most certainly had no use for the newspapers, one might think, but it turns out reading them was part of their daily routine. No doubt by the evening they had forgotten entirely the newspapers’ contents, such were the distractions of their social whirl. Fun was a calling. One could not let reality intrude upon the serious vocation of diverting oneself, and for this Nash, with his bachelor dedication to the fairer sex and his ever-credulous faith in Lady Luck – like Francis Bacon, another compulsive gambler, he was ‘optimistic about nothing’ – was the best-suited organiser imaginable. He even went off every year to organise the fun in Tunbridge Wells. He hired the musicians, set an example when it came to fashionable attire, resolved and circumvented any signs of discord, and exemplified at all times the

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benign despotism of the responsible gambler. He also disliked snobbery and was benevolent: ‘…the sums he gave away were immense; and, in old age, when at last grown too poor to give relief, he gave, as the poet has it, all he had, a tear; when incapable of relieving the agonies of the wretched, he attempted to relieve his own by a flood of sorrow.’

There is huge pathos in Goldsmith’s portrait of Nash, based on the way the Beau went from being exalted to regal status, only inexorably to lose his powers.

‘About this time, he arrived at such a pitch of authority, that I really believe Alexander was not greater at Persepolis. The countenance he received from the Prince of Orange, the favour he was in with the Prince of Wales, and the caresses of the nobility, all conspired to lift him to the utmost pitch of vanity. The exultation of a little mind, upon being admitted to the familiarity of the Great is inexpressible. The prince of Orange had made him a present of a very fine snuff-box. Upon this some of the nobility thought it would be proper to give snuff-boxes too…’

This results in a heap of snuff boxes. Nash becomes somewhat snobbish despite himself. Goldsmith notes: ‘I have known him, in London, waste a whole day at a window in the Smyrna coffee-house, in order to receive a bow from the Prince, or the Duchess of Marlborough, as they passed by where he was standing, and he would then look round upon the company for admiration and respect.’

The plaudits keep flowing, however. The reflected glory continues to dazzle: ‘To add to his honours, there was placed a full-length picture of him, in Wiltshire’s Ballroom, between the busts of Newton and Pope. It was upon this occasion that the Earl of Chesterfield wrote the following severe but witty epigram: Immortal Newton never spoke More truth than here you’ll find; Nor Pope himself e’er penned a joke Severer on mankind.

This picture placed these busts between, Gives satire its full strength, Wisdom and wit are little seen, But Folly at full length.’

Many people have got to know about Bath through its literary connections, most notably with Jane Austen, who lived here and has a small museum dedicated to her.

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We can see where all this is going. An age that was more merciless in its lampoons than our easily offended ears could bear, would take great pleasure in dethroning its monarch of fun. Hard to know when precisely – perhaps with the introduction of stricter laws against gambling – but the Beau’s career began to follow a familiar trajectory from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the meridian to the nadir, from riches to rags. He soon became both poor and unfashionable.

‘Poor Nash was no longer the gay, thoughtless, idly industrious creature he once was’ laments Goldsmith. ‘Idly industrious’ is a delicious paradox, but maybe one that would be lost on the titans of the industrial age then dawning, even as Nash ran out of road. ‘…he now forgot how to supply new modes of entertainment, and became too rigid, to wind with ease through the vicissitudes of fashion. The evening of his life began to grow cloudy. His fortune was gone, and nothing but poverty lay in prospect. To embitter his hopes, he found himself abandoned by the great, whom he had long endeavoured to serve, and was obliged to fly to those of humbler stations for protection, whom he once affected to despise. He now began to want that charity, which he had never refused to any and to find, that a life of dissipation and gaiety, is ever terminated by misery and regret.’

And the moral of this tale is…

There was not much to look forward to, now, but the steady drift into irrelevance and decline. Like an aging rock star, the Beau became his own tribute act. Still, it was a splendid funeral!

Visiting the scene of his rise and fall now, there is a hint of this irrelevance in the city he did so much to create. Already, by the time of Jane Austen, the buildings must have reeked of another generation’s revels.

They used to say that fishermen sitting at dusk on the end of the pier in Brighton could hear the ghostly laughter of Victorian audiences. Even in Austen’s day, there would have been some ghostly laughter from the days when the Beau was organising all the fun.

The faint echo is still there today, but we live in less carefree times.

Given its proximity to Bristol and that city’s explicit dependence on slavery, I was tempted to look into the issue of where Bath’s riches came from, and sure enough, there was slavery involved. On the hill behind Bath is a tower built by William Beckford, novelist, a well-known beneficiary of the plantations, but the money used to build Great Pulteney Street and the Palladian pile at the end of it, now housing the Holburne Museum, also derived from that brutal practice. Sir William Pulteney 5th Baronet, according to Wikipedia, ‘was reputedly the wealthiest man in Great Britain. He profited from slave plantations in North America, and invested in building developments in Great Britain, including the Pulteney Bridge and other buildings in Bath, buildings on the sea-front at Weymouth in Dorset, and roads in his native Scotland.’ Ironically, one of the houses in the street named after him carries a plaque commemorating William Wilberforce, the great abolitionist, who lived here for a while.

And then there’s the museum: its website admits that ‘some of Sir William Holburne’s inherited wealth derived from plantations in the West Indies, the business of which involved trading in people as well as produce and materials.’

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Bridgerton meets Holburne

Back in the days of the Beau’s reign, while fun was being had by the bathing, dancing, flirting and gossiping attendants at the court of King Fun, enslaved multitudes were still toiling in the plantations to fund their merriment. But there was little as yet to prick the English conscience.

The great campaigns of Wilberforce and the long, agonising battles between the abolitionists and the slave owners would take place in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the early decades of the nineteenth, long after Bath’s faux monarch had been laid to rest. Even so, one would like to think there were some guilty consciences among the light-headed revellers. They may even have tried to assuage their guilt, like Colston did in Bristol, by philanthropy at home.

Great Pulteney Street remains, of course, and what a street it is. The pavements alone are majestic in size. The vistas in both directions are stunning. Later on, Napoleon III would stay here, and two years later return to Paris to head the government. The boulevards that he and Baron Haussmann designed for the French capital would be inspired by this magnificent street, thereafter inspiring similar broad thoroughfares throughout Europe. They were beautiful. They also made the suppression of revolutions a lot easier, as the authorities could see for long distances and nip the construction of barricades in the bud.

Now the scenes of Bath have been used as backdrop to the latest period costume hit on Netflix, and one of the distinctive things about Bridgerton is its colourblind casting. Leaving aside the fevered speculations about the historical Queen Charlotte – personally, I am persuaded by Ramsay’s portraits that she did have African heritage – the handsome duke of the story is most definitely

Bath continues to enchant most people, and many of the scenes in the wildly popular Bridgerton series (available on Netflix) are set there. black. I need hardly expand here on the anachronisms, given that, in the period the series is set in, slavery flourished. There is a sort of wilful refusal to attempt historical credibility that deserves sneaking admiration. But the good intentions aside, where would this casting of black people as members of the Georgian aristocracy leave an understanding of history’s terrible injustices? Were they just fun-loving criminals, the whole damn lot of them, nicking sugar from their neighbour while hypocritically preaching love for their fellow man? It seems a strange kind of doublethink to try to remind ourselves of the racism and injustices of the past, while portraying it as diverse as our own society, just with a different wardrobe.

But Bridgerton fans are not generally much exercised by fidelity to historical facts. In YouTube videos made by two such fans showing the drama’s locations, both of them managed to refer to Great Pulteney Street as ‘Putney Street’. Maybe, just maybe, one has to have fun – if one is to have fun at all – at the expense of historical accuracy.

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Boehly and Abramovich: Americans Taking Over from the Russians in Chelsea

By Majalla Illustration by Jeannette Khouri Chelsea Football Club announced that a consortium headed by American businessman Todd Boehly officially acquired the ownership of the club after agreeing on all terms between the club’s executives who managed the negotiation process.

The UK government had seized the property of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, including the club, against the background of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and as a form of punishment for the Russian military operation against Ukraine.

The club was seized and offered for sale under the supervision of the government.

Many parties submitted offers to buy the club before the Boehly syndicate won the deal.

The English club issued an official statement, confirming that all conditions for the acquisition of Chelsea FC by an American group led by Boehly have been agreed.

The statement continued that of the total investment of £4.25 billion, £2.5 billion will be allocated to purchase shares in the club, and these proceeds will be deposited

into a UK frozen bank account with the intent of donating 100% to charitable causes.

Boehly’s fortune is equal to half the wealth of the Russian Abramovich, amounting to 4.5 billion dollars, compared to 9 billion dollars for his Russian counterpart, but Boehly’s experience in the field of sports is a cause for optimism in Chelsea.

The American billionaire, who will lead the new alliance to manage Chelsea, has a sizable stake in the largest Los Angeles sports clubs, led by the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.

Boehly graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1996 with a BA in Finance and studied at the London School of Economics.

While at the London School of Economics, Boehly started working for Citibank and then Credit Suisse so that he could gain experience in finance.

He then launched the trust investment business of a major US corporation, Guggenheim Partners, and took on the responsibilities of the asset management business.

In 2015, Boehly bought some of the assets he had accumulated in his previous company and founded Elderg, a private holding company that invests in various industries.

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Abramovich, meanwhile, is a Russian billionaire and businessman, born on October 24, 1966, in Saratov, which was part of the Soviet Union.

Born to a Jewish father and mother, Abramovich suffered from the horrors of World War II, as the family lived in Hitler’s warravaged Ukraine.

Abramovich grew up as an orphan and did not complete his university education. Concerning his marital status, he is divorced with 7 children.

His fortune is estimated at $13.6 billion, and he is ranked 142nd among the world’s richest people, according to Forbes magazine.

Abramovich owns stakes in steelmaking giants Evraz and Norilsk Nickel, as well as most of the shares in Chelsea Football Club.

He has the second largest yacht in the world, which is 533 feet high, that he bought for nearly $400 million in 2010.

He sold his 73% stake in Russian oil company Sibneft to state-owned Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005.

Abramovich spent $2.5 billion in the Chukotka region, while he was chairman of the local Duma from 2001 to 2013.

He transferred more than $90 million of New York property to his ex-wife Dasha Zhukova.

H

ealth

Scroll Smarter to Protect Your Mental Health Social Media Networks May Have a Dark Side

By Maureen Salamon

A BRIGHT SIDE

Social media platforms offer a way to connect with others -- long-lost friends, busy family members, and neighbors.

So, why do you sometimes feel deflated after spending time online?

Social media might not be the problem. The issue might be how you’re using it, says Jacqueline Sperling, the co-program director of McLean’s Anxiety Mastery Program and an instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School.

Although social media may take a toll on your mood, it doesn’t always do so, says Sperling. There is evidence that online social interactions even have mood benefits for some users. The question is, why is social media harmful in some instances but not in others?

The difference may relate to whether you engage in active, self-oriented activities or those that are passive and otheroriented, says Sperling.

Activities that are active and self-oriented, such as sending a direct message to a friend or updating a profile picture, are less likely to have worsen mood, says Sperling. But the opposite might be true for passive or other-oriented practices, such as looking through social media posts. This type of scrolling creates opportunities for social comparison, she says. Did someone else’s photos get more likes? Did their post attract more positive comments? Why do they get to experience exciting travel adventures while you’re sitting at home?

If you’ve noticed that you feel worse after using social media, there are things that you can do to improve your experience without giving it up entirely, says Sperling.

Track your feelings. First, identify how social media use makes you feel, says Sperling. Rate your emotional state on a scale of 0 to 10 before and after using social media.

(A 10 signifies the most intense emotion, for example, extremely happy, anxious, or sad.) Also, note whether you engaged in more passive or active use during the session.

If you find that your online time left you feeling more upset, angry, or worried than you were beforehand, it might be time to make some changes, she says. Here are

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MOOD Research has found associations between social media and negative mental health effects in youth, says Sperling. Although there’s less research in adults, some shows similar links, she says.

One November 2021 study, published online by JAMA Network Open, found a connection between social media use and depressive symptoms in adults. Researchers looked at Internet survey data collected between May 2020 and May 2021 among more than 5,300 adults (average age about 56). Participants filled out at least two surveys.

None of those included in the study reported symptoms of depression in the first survey. But those who used social media were more likely to report an increase in depressive symptoms on subsequent surveys than those who didn’t.

“Although the research found associations and not causes, it’s possible that some types of social media use are linked with negative effects on one’s mood across a wide range of the life span,” says Sperling.

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“Although the research found associations and not causes, it’s possible that some types of social media use are linked with negative effects on one’s mood across a wide range of the life span,”

Photo Credit: (Pexels/ Fauxels)

some possibilities: Frame the experience. People typically don’t post the full range of their real-life experiences on social media, says Sperling. People can use filters on photos to make themselves appear more attractive than they are in real life, and they may carefully curate their online image. When you find yourself feeling jealous, remember that there’s likely a lot that you’re not seeing. Although someone may post pictures of her recent trip, you won’t see the fight she had with her partner at the airport, or the strained relationship she has with the daughter she was visiting. Reminding yourself of this can help limit the urge to compare yourself to others.

Curate your feed. Consider being more selective about what you expose yourself to. For example, do you have a friend whose posts consistently make you feel jealous or angry? Instead of enduring content that bothers you, use the “unfollow” or “mute” option that’s available on some social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This allows you to stay friends, but you don’t have to see the person’s posts, unless you deliberately view

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them. Sometimes removing a few problematic people from view makes the experience healthier, says Sperling.

Activate your experience. Instead of passively scrolling, use social media to bolster your real-life relationships.

Send direct messages to friends or family members to stay in touch. Also, use social media to identify opportunities to socialize in real life. For example, if you see a post about an upcoming event from a restaurant you follow, invite a friend to attend, says Sperling.

Choose your battles. Social media sometimes becomes a forum to hash out contentious subjects, and emotions can quickly boil over. Consider having these conversations in person instead of online, says Sperling. Tensions tend to escalate more quickly when people are communicating electronically. People may say things while using a keyboard that they would never say during a face-to-face interaction. If the person you are engaging with isn’t a close connection, consider whether it’s worth discussing a controversial or emotional subject at all, says Sperling. Sometimes it’s better to walk away.

Keep perspective. Be conscious of how much energy you’re devoting to social media. Some people spend an excessive amount of time creating the “perfect” post. If this sounds like you, consider setting some limits or modifying your use. For example, if you really like to share photos of restaurant meals that you enjoy, take the picture, says Sperling. But don’t post it until you get home. Time spent posting the photo at the restaurant and checking for “likes” takes away from time that is better spent focusing on your dining companion.

Examine your motivations. If your online habits are detracting from your personal relationships, consider the root cause.

“What is it that you’re seeking? Are you looking for validation that is missing from somewhere else in your life? Is something missing from your real-life social connections?” asks Sperling. “The answers to these questions may help you take steps to enrich your in-person interactions and rely less on those on social media.”

This article was originally published by Harvard Health.

T

echnology

Russia Scrambles to Seize War Story by Controlling Internet Will Ukraine conflict create new democratic internet values? Or is this a flash in the pan?

By Meera Ravi In August 1990, when the United States launched the Gulf War to reclaim Kuwait from the invading forces of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein,

it was touted as the world’s first real-time media war. Those of us who lived through the war in nearby Bahrain or Saudi Arabia literally followed the trajectory of the missiles as they streaked into the skies and landed in Iraq. Cynically, media ob-

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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine appears on screen and speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine amid the Russian military invasion, at the United Nations headquarters, in New York, New York, USA, 05 April 2022. EPA/PETER FOLEY

servers said that the war was also being fought in the correct time zone, since most of the missiles were fired after sunset and it would be daytime and decision-making time at the Pentagon and also for the millions of TV audience in America, who woke up to watch the war coverage.

Fast forward to 2022 – right from the time that Russia started amassing tanks and troops on the Ukraine border in preparation for its brutal invasion which followed, the much smaller and less powerful country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has used the internet to mobilise global support against the Goliath Russian enemy. The ability to slip short, powerful videos and messages to his people and to the world has time and again helped to turn this war on a dime for Ukraine. Ukraine’s social media posts alerted the world to Russia’s true intent long before the war attack began by broadcasting the sheer size of the troops massing on the border; when Russia taunted Ukrainians that Zelensky had fled the country, he posted a video of himself standing defiantly in front of the presidency building, flanked by his senior aides, telling the world, “We are here. We are in Kyiv. We are protecting Ukraine.” The video’s message would have been silenced by Russia if not for the internet and it became an iconic video and a rallying cry for the Ukrainians.

Of course, the shaping of the war narrative through social media is not a surprise for both countries and globally, a tech war is surging that seeks to wrest control of the story. The Washington Post calls this “the most Internet-accessible war in history,” and perhaps the most crucial digital technology moment came from a simple device: internet-enabled video conferencing. Near the end of Sunday’s major EU summit meeting about the war, Zelensky appeared by videoconference to plead for assistance with the assembled heads of state. As one European official described the call, “it was extremely, extremely emotional. . .. He was essentially saying, ‘Look, we are here dying for European ideals.’” Zelensky ended the video call by stating that this could be the last time the leaders saw him alive. His appeal led to the imposition of draconian sanctions intended to bring the Russian economy to a standstill.

In fact, U.S. tech companies have been at the forefront of identifying and flagging what they

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The shaping of the war narrative through social media is not a surprise for both countries and globally, a tech war is surging that seeks to wrest control of the story. call “Russian disinformation and propaganda”.

According to a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Twitter announced it will label all content coming from Russian government media outlets as such. Meta and TikTok are blocking access to Russian state media in the EU, following a request from EU members. Google, YouTube, and Facebook are prohibiting Russian state media from running ads. And beyond social media, the broader tech sector has also put up barriers: Apple has suspended all product sales in Russia, SpaceX has delivered a truckload of Starlink satellite dishes to help Ukraine maintain internet connectivity, and Microsoft has played an active role assisting Ukraine and NATO members in counteracting Russian cyber-attacks.”

And what about Russia? How has the aggressor sought to counter these moves? In February this year, Russia said it would partially restrict Facebook, a move Meta said came after it refused a government request to stop the independent fact-checking of several Russian state media outlets. Spurred by roadblocks put up by international social media apps, Russia is encouraging home-grown developers to launch a series of locally made social apps which can then replace certain networks: such as Instagram which have been blocked by the Russian government, and YouTube, which is now under growing pressure.

Many Russian creators are moving to parallel Russian-grown platforms like Rossgram, Yandex Zen, RUTUBE, and VKontakte (VK) as an alternative to services like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and even Netflix.

The Russian government has even dismantled universally accepted copyright restrictions in a

T

echnology

policy it calls “parallel imports” that essentially legalizes intellectual piracy.

“The goal of this mechanism is to satisfy the demand for [intellectual] goods,” said Mikhail Mishustin, the Russian prime minister. “Until now, we couldn’t sell [them] on the territory of our country without the agreement of the copyright holder.”

For example, Instagram was hugely popular in Russia, representing a crucial source of income for many businesses. Russia’s ban of the app on March 14, (as a result of what the Russian government called efforts by parent company Meta to flag official Russian news sources on Facebook) was shocking to Russian people, especially the influencers. The alternative Rossgram looked roughly like Instagram, with a similar color scheme, icons, and other trademark features but still lacking the seamless feel of the original.

Similarly, a recent investigation showed that the Russian authorities had been offering money to influencers in Russia to move to the RUTUBE platform – the local alternative to YouTube - even before the Ukrainian war. RUTUBE was created

by Russian company Gaz Prom Media in 2006 and is seeing a surge in growth now. claimed that its users have been increasing significantly recently.

Gazprom-Media CEO Alexander Zharov said that the Russian platform’s users are reaching 450 thousand people per day, while video downloads rose from 3,000 to 40,000 times a day.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ma-

Spurred by roadblocks put up by international social media apps, Russia is encouraging home-grown developers to launch a series of locally made social apps which can then replace certain networks.

ria Zakharova urged Russian YouTube users to transfer their content to the new Russian platforms, warning that YouTube may disappear from Russia soon. “Save content, transfer to Russian platforms. And hurry up,” she posted on Telegram, noting that “YouTube has sealed its fate.”

Which brings us to the peculiar acceptance of Telegram and WhatsApp, the last apps standing in the Russian internet space. As of August 2021, around 38 million Russians were using Telegram, while close to 77 million Russians were on WhatsApp, according to data from Statista. Those numbers are presumably much higher in the wake of Instagram and Facebook’s ban. WhatsApp likely hasn’t been banned yet due to its popularity: It’s the most widely-used messaging app in the country, and Russians don’t really have an alternative to the platform. Russia more notably doesn’t seem too concerned about people using WhatsApp for mass communication or information gathering. When a Russian court declared Meta “extremist,” it said: “The decision does not apply to the activities of Meta’s messenger WhatsApp, due to its lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information.”

Telegram is used by many Kremlin-backed accounts and as an active voice for the Russian side of the story. The app was briefly banned by the Russian government in 2018 after the platform refused to hand over its encryption keys, which the country argued were needed to monitor potential terrorist activity. It took Telegram to court over the issue, but the ban was lifted two years

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A Landing page of Russian-grown platform VKontakte which is promoted as an alternative to Facebook.

Many Russian creators are moving to parallel Russian-grown platforms like Rossgram, Yandex Zen, RUTUBE, and VKontakte (VK) as an alternative to services like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and even Netflix.

Facebook’s new rebrand logo Meta is seen on smartpone in front of displayed logo of Facebook, Messenger, Intagram, Whatsapp, Oculus in this illustration taken October 2021 ,28.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

to use its data for Donald Trump’s general election campaign.) later after Telegram expressed “willingness” to Undoubtedly, the war between Russia and Western big tech companies will accelerate the fraghelp the country fight terrorism and extremism.

Natalia Krapiva, a tech-legal counsel at civil menting of the internet and in the future, the govrights non-profit Access Now said “Recently, erning of the internet will be even more complex. there was a government official kind of hinting However, we must remember that democracies as that Telegram is providing information about well as autocracies are tightening the screws on terrorists, and that’s why Telegram may not be internet freedom of expression and usage and it is not just the ‘classic authoritarian states’ like touched.”

Telegram has refuted those remarks but since Tel- Russia and China where online content and usegram’s chats also aren’t end-to-end encrypted by age is policed. Today, such state bullying is also default, it has led to speculation that the Russian seen in countries like Brazil, India, Nigeria, and government could press Telegram to hand over Turkey. Will governments agree to build a shared available user information. With Telegram being primer to preserve internet freedom of speech and widely used by Russian citizens, government of- democratic values? ficials and news organizations alike, there could As Steven Feldstein of the Carnegie Endowment be more room for a platform like WhatsApp to for International Peace said, slide under the radar for users to speak out against “Russia’s invasion has shown the power of internet platforms to elevate democratic voices the Russian government, Krapiva said.

Is the stance taken by Western tech companies and undercut authoritarian agendas. But they are mere posturing in favour of democracy or a real not substitutes for diplomatic or military action; liberal stand? U.S. firms are using this moment in the short term, they can do little to stop Puto argue that their market dominance is a pro- tin’s war machine from inflicting violence and democracy weapon. Meta CEO Mark Zucker- brutality on the Ukrainian people. In the longer berg, for example, has asserted that breaking up term, the incapacity of Russia’s digital propaBig Tech would relinquish control of a major ganda machine and the corresponding global American lever of geopolitical influence. Where outrage provoked by social media against Puonce people dismissed Zuckerberg’s words as tin’s assault will bring grave consequences for marketing PR for his brand, using the bogey- Russia’s interests. The Russia-Ukraine crisis afman of Chinese tech hegemony, the Ukraine fords internet platforms a unique opportunity to mess has changed the perception somewhat. (Of demonstrate how they can support democracy course, anybody who has followed big tech be- and advance the public interest. This will mean trayals will remember that Zuckerberg’s Face- staying firm against Russian pressure even when book raked big money in by allowing the now- Moscow directly threatens their interests and fudefunct data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica ture viability in the country.”

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o

pinion

Royal Academy of Dance: Conveying Passion for Dance Through Elegance and Beauty On Sunday 8th of May, the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) opened its doors to the public for a housewarming event to celebrate the opening of their brand-new location.

By Luisa Markides

The Royal Academy of Dance, which has its headquarters in Battersea, Southwest London, was founded in 1920 and has been teaching the world how to dance for over 100 years. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1935. In 1953 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II became the Patron of the Royal Academy of Dance. Ever since, they have established offices in 36 countries around the world making it one of the world’s leading and most influential dance education organizations globally. They teach children from as young as three years of age up to the Master and Postgraduate Diploma.

The philosophy at the RAD is that “everyone” and “everybody” should be able to dance and given the opportunity to do so. According to the HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, Vice Patron of the RAD, who was present at the official opening 60

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of the new studios in April 2022, “the RAD is such a happy place. I think dancing makes you happy.”

How very right she is.

I feel privileged that I was able to report about this first-hand on Sunday. You could feel the high standard and professionality of this school from the first moment you step through their doors and are greeted by a welcoming and friendly staff member.

Gerard Charles, who is RAD’s Artistic Director since 2018, opened the doors to the community and made everyone feel welcome and at ease. His charismatic and energetic presence on stage brought an excellent taste of what the Royal Academy of Dance has to offer. It was an incredibly successful opening to the public and with performances by some of his outstanding dance students.

The day was filled with pure excitement all around, from refreshments, auditions, free workshops, dance inspired arts and crafts, scavenger hunt, and face paintings to live music.

The Academy was able to present itself in all its grandeur, inspiring all visitors of different ages, and bringing the beauty of dance closer to everyone. I could see the sparkly eyes of very young children when watching the performances or attending their age-designed workshops. They were carried away and kept their focus and admiration when watching those representing the Royal Academy performing on stage. I could notice how some turned to their parents, asking to be enrolled into their weekly classes.

Dreams were just made right there.

dents, such as contemporary dance, street dance, hip hop routines, and a performance by students from the local Thomas’s Battersea School, just to name a few. The RAD offered free workshops throughout the day to the visitors, in order to bring the community closer to some of their courses they offer. Children and students attending the RAD are truly lucky to be able to be taught dance from this leading world school.

Before leaving the packed hall, I had to smile when I noticed the name of my seat “Audience dreamers to dancOne of my personal highlights was an ing dreamers.” It could not have been incredibly inspiring drumming work- truer… shop. They were able to bring and connect closely with West African culture This day might have been the foundaand carried away so many spectators tion for a newly inspired generation present in the main hall. who dares to dream through art. We all need to create and see the word There were some stunning ballet solo through more beauty, more passion, performances from RAD A-Level stu- more hope…

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The philosophy at the RAD is that “everyone” and “everybody” should be able to dance and given the opportunity to do so .