Policy Analyzer

Horatio Clare The Guardian ,  Saturday 4 September 2010 Visitors can help bring Algiers out of the shadows. Photograph: Patrick Robert/Sygma/Corbia Isn't is strange that a gigantic country with some of the most beautiful coastline on Earth, a luminous hinterland of mountains vast and deserts idle, crowned with the most alluring capital city I know, should be just three hours from London and almost unvisited by travellers? We used to go: well-to-do Victorians loved wintering in  Algeria . But modernity has been cruel to this great gorgeous land, and even by the standards of war-torn  Africa , Algeria's is an awful story. We associate it with the violent end of French colonialism, civil war in the 90s that cost up to 200,000 lives, and sporadic terror attacks. But this is a gross underestimation of a magical place, and a delightful and beguiling people. With its Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Barbary pirate and French colonial heritage, Algeria has a

Both facing pressure from Washington, Moscow and Ankara ditched the US dollar when finalizing their landmark S-400 air defense missile systems deal and continue this way in the future, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said.   “We understand that if we’ll make transactions in [US] dollars, they won’t come through,” Putin told reporters on Wednesday. He cited his recent talks with Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan adding that they thought up another option.   Speaking at a business forum in Moscow, the Russian president noted that the ‘dollar-less’ S-400s deal with Turkey is just one recent example of the approach the nations share. The same will apply to “other types of goods” as well, he stressed.   “We don’t have a goal of abandoning from the dollar, but we are forced to do so. And, I assure you, we will do it,” Putin said, adding that it will ultimately make global trade more secure and efficient.   Russia and Turkey have been in talks about switching from the US dol

ERHAN AFYONCU,  ISTANBUL Feb 16, 2018 An oil painting of Abdülhamid II displayed in Topkapı Palace’s portraits gallery.        Bo rn in Istanbul on Sept. 21, 1842, Shahzade (son of the sultan) Abdülhamid spent his childhood and youth through the Tanzimat (Reformation) of the Ottoman Empire. As a young prince Abdülhamid II traveled through Europe with his uncle Sultan Abdülaziz in 1867, this was an opportunity for him to broaden his knowledge and vision of the world. In this journey, he went to France, England, Belgium, Germany and Austria, experiencing the Western lifestyle, traditions, customs and protocols in full detail. He also had the opportunity to see the most advanced technologies and inventions at the time and understand the level of advancement Europe had reached. He also got an idea of how international diplomacy worked. These observations and experiences would later prove critical for Sultan Abdülhamid once he assumed power. First years of his reign Abdülh