European Politics

Just now, after a long talk, two Turkish parliament members were fired from the fraction (I guess you call that a parliamentary group) of PvdA, the party of the Minister I talked about on the previous page. The two criticized the Minister because he has a few Turkish organizations (such as Milli Görüs) followed because these are possibly obstructing integration of Turks in our society. They think that the Minister is obstructing Turks from getting integrated.
 
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Spectacular news
Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces are considering bringing back iconic Soviet-era nuclear missile trains as Moscow pumps money into a complete overhaul its aging nuclear arsenal.

According to an unidentified source in the Russian military-industrial complex quoted by the TASS news agency on Thursday, the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology — makers of the Topol, Yars and Bulava missiles — is designing a next-generation missile launching train.

"While the decision to start manufacturing [missile trains] is still pending, the probability is high that it will happen," the source was quoted as saying, explaining that technical studies and cost estimates are still being conducted.

"In the best-case scenario, they will be deployed by the end of the decade, probably somewhere around 2019," he said.

The Russian nuclear forces are the prime beneficiaries of Moscow's sweeping 20 trillion ruble ($500 billion) military rearmament drive, with authorities pledging to completely modernize the country's arsenal with new rockets better suited to respond to modern threats.

The Soviet Union began deploying nuclear missile trains in 1987. The trains used RT-23 Molodets missiles, built by the giant Yuzhmash machine building plant located in modern day Ukraine. By the time the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, 56 of the missiles were deployed on missile trains. Ukraine stopped building RT-23s, and by 2005 Russia had decommissioned all of them.

In December last year, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakayev of the Strategic Rocket Forces said that the U.S. Prompt Global Strike program was forcing Russia to begin conducting studies on putting the concept back into practice.

Prompt Global Strike refers to the development by the U.S. of hypersonic missiles that will be capable of fast, high precision strikes anywhere on the globe.

In this context, missile trains make a lot of sense for Russian defense strategists. One of the key elements of any nuclear war plan is the ability of your nuclear forces to survive a first strike from an opponent and counterattack with devastating force.

A missile train would increase the survivability of Russia's nuclear arsenal, complicating efforts to locate its missiles by moving them quickly and consistently around the country
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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/busin...-to-counter-u-s-attack-capability/511979.html
 
What a jacked up country


Not for the first time in the last five years, Greece is facing interlinked political and economic crises. As a result, Greek financial assets have become increasingly volatile.

The country faces two uncertainties in the days ahead: The first concerns a deal with official international creditors over a stalled review of the country’s austerity program and a switch to a new credit line in 2015. The second is over the risk of an early general election.

On Thursday, the country’s main stock-market index failed to hold the 1,000-point mark it regained earlier this week, while Greek government bond markets also weakened. The yield on the 10-year bond reached 7.74%, well above its September low of around 5.5%.

If the deal with the Troika of creditors from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund is not reached soon, political tension in Greece is likely to rise sharply. This could deal the ruling conservatives with a serious blow and possibly push Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to calling snap elections. If on the other hand, the country does not hold early elections, a deal with the troika may remain frozen.

Greek officials say the country’s political uncertainty may be the main reason that the country’s inspectors are dragging their feet on giving a green light to the country’s last review. The creditors are seeking to extend the country’s bailout program by up to six months. while the Greek government is hoping for a shorter extension of just a few weeks. An official decision on the issue could be taken as early as Monday during a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

“Most member states want six months to avoid future accidents,” a senior eurozone official said.

This statement came even after the Greek finance ministry proposed an additional number of unpopular tax hikes and austerity measures in a bid to bridge the differences with the Troika.

Earlier this week, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called the Troika’s demands “irrational and unjustifiable.”

Government officials suspect the creditors may be deliberately making big demands in order to extend its program well past March and the uncertainty posed by the upcoming presidential election.

By March, parliament will need to elect a new president by a supermajority of at least 180 votes, out of a total of 300, or else face a dissolution that would result in a national election.

Leftist Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, who is leading in opinion polls, has repeatedly said that he won’t accept any package agreed between the current coalition government, made up by the conservative New Democracy and the socialist Pasok parties, and international lenders. But if the negotiations for the country’s post-loan agreement era are postponed until mid-2015, Syriza’s leverage would be reduced and it would come under pressure from the Troika to sign up to the agreement.

The relationship between Greece’s conservatives and the lenders has never properly recovered since October. It was then that Greece said that is aiming for a clean exit from the loan agreement and would be able to raise an estimated €9 billion it needs next year on its own from the debt market.

The Troika’s stance since then has accelerated political developments. Many lawmakers, even within the ruling party, are asking for the presidential elections to be brought forward, so that the country is not dragged into uncertainty until March.
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There is currently much talk of right wing populism here in Germany. This article does a fairly good job at saying what is going on, although their analysis of the actual political parties is far from being spot on, and in some cases heavily distorted:
Making sense of Germany's rightward shift

What the article does not clarify however, is the confusion about whether what is happening is a mass upheaval in society or just a few, loud people taking the streets.
 
Perun said:
There is currently much talk of right wing populism here in Germany. This article does a fairly good job at saying what is going on, although their analysis of the actual political parties is far from being spot on, and in some cases heavily distorted:
Making sense of Germany's rightward shift

What the article does not clarify however, is the confusion about whether what is happening is a mass upheaval in society or just a few, loud people taking the streets.
Click to expand...

I just read the Wiki article on PEGIDA. I see these charming guys state the importance of the Judeo-Christian heritage of Germany (or Europe). Well, if concerned Christians in Europe feel their roots in Judaism are so important, maybe they shouldn't have treated the Jews like crap since ... I don't know ... Emperor Nero?

When I see the term "Judeo-Christian" in Norway, it is often brouth on by conservative Christians in discussions about the Israel-Palestine question, where they talk about how important it is for good Christians to support Israel (i.e. everything Israel does - constructive criticism isn't part of their vocabulary). They seem to forget (or ignore) that there are still quite many Palestinians who are also Christian.
 
The problem is that Pegida is enigmatic. Nobody really knows where they came from, what part of the population they represent or whether they're a loud minority or the voice of a quiet majority. Why does such a mass movement suddenly appear without forewarning in a region that has no significant Muslim population? The only place where you can actually find people you know with certainty that they are part of this are the demonstrations themselves, and there, the people refuse to talk with journalists. It's literally part of their agenda not to talk to them.
 
It's a bit like Sverigedemokraterna, I guess. A mix of everything from outright neo-Nazis to ordinary people who react when the Syria conflict/IS causes confrontation within Germany (Kurds vs others) or when seemingly ordinary immigrant youth travel to Syria to join the IS.

A digression: In Norway, the main "right-wing populist" party has moderated themselves signifantly over the last 20 years or so - to the extent that they are now part of a governement with the Conservative party (who have a rather liberal stance on immigration), and the outright racists have started other, more marginal groups including "Stop Islamization of Norway" and "Norwegian Defence League".
 
The Turkish government is really pushing forward the idea of Neo-Ottomanism in these last couple of months. There have been talks of renaming cities back to their Ottoman names, the state television has started showing a lot of Ottoman related series and films, there have been proposals in regards to teaching Ottoman language to children. While it may look all good and dandy in terms of a cultural heritage embracement, we all are familiar with the Islamic roots of the government and their opposing ways to modern Turkey. Today, President Erdoğan called out the Turkish language, stating it's a weak language and that you can't talk philosophy with it.

Originally coming into force as a pro-European Union party, the government party AKP has recently moved into an anti-European and Islamic heavy approach. Erdoğan infamously said last month that America was discovered by Muslims and when he got told, he told European Union "to mind their own business."
 
You know, hearkening back to old imperial days has not really had a great success rate in modern Europe.
 
I feel like this is simply an attempt to create false agenda in preperation for the elections coming up in June of 2015. The government, although having a huge devouted crowd in the country, is battling with constant pressure from opposers, Europe and the U.S. due to their corruption scandals, economic stalemate, authoritarian ways, Syrian crisis, their role in the ISIS issue and overall unrest in the country. Fishing the country's right-wing voters with pro-Ottoman agenda is a great way to shift the actual points of conversation to the stuff that don't really matter.
 
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