Nearly 100 people were killed in a bomb blast in Ankara, Turkey. The bomb blasts targeted demonstrators who were urging peace with the Kurds in support of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). It is not yet known what group was responsible for the bombings, but suspicion fell on the Islamic State given the recent aggressive actions by Turkey against the IS. However, the Turkish government has also stepped up its activities against Kurdish separatist groups. The situation remains murky.
Since 2013, the US has tried to support groups in Syria which were both opposed to Syrian President Assad and to the Islamic State. That effort is now apparently in ruins as Russia has carried out a sustained bombing campaign against the anti-Assad groups. This development is clearly a short-term defeat for the Obama foreign policy in the region. It does, however, suggest that now the Russians have to defend a longer-term interest in the region. We will have to see whether the Russians are more effective in putting down a radical insurgency than was the US in Iraq. We already know that both the US and the Russians were not successful in Afghanistan. It also remains to be seen how other powers in the Middle East such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States react to what seems to be an emerging Russian-Iranian axis.
One of the largest demonstrations in recent German history was held today against the Trans-Atlantic Trade Agreement. Estimates vary between 150,000 and 250,000 people participated in the demonstration which signaled dissatisfaction with enlarging the scale of free trade with the US. Opponents of the agreement believe that it does little to protect the interests of consumers, workers, and the environment. Interestingly, there were remarkably few similar protests to the counterpart Trans-Pacific Partnership which was agreed upon by the main negotiators last week.
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