Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing for constitutional reforms in order to give the country’s president more powers. When he returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia, Erdogan was asked whether such powers were possible given that the current system gives power to a Prime Minister. According to the New York Times, Erdogan responded:
“There are already examples in the world,” Mr. Erdogan said. “You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany.”
The response is not one likely to give comfort to those Turkish citizens who believe in human rights and democracy.
Russia has issued an update of its national security policy which describes NATO expansion as a threat to Russian national security. Several states which were once part of the Soviet Union’s military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, are now members of NATO and Russia fears that the former policy of containment is being revived against it much closer to its national borders. NATO expansion has occurred as several states have indicated that they seek protection against Russian expansionism. The conflict is a classic case of the security dilemma.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled New Delhi as the city with the most polluted air on the planet. The air usually worsens in the city during the winter as inhabitants turn to a variety of fuels to keep warm, but the levels of particulates in the air is higher than even in Beijing. Officials have ordered a crackdown on automobile traffic in the city in an effort to reduce those levels. India needs to take effective action as 13 of the 20 cities on the planet with the highest levels of pollution are in India.
I am going on vacation for two weeks and will only blog sporadically. I will return to daily postings on 17 January.
World Politics News 
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