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Turkey

Ankara Attack, The Government Must Share The Blame

Saturday's bombings in Turkey's capital may be the worst in the nation's history, with a toll approaching 100 dead. Some point the finger at President Erdogan's ruling AKP party.

Oct. 11 commemoration walk for the victims of Saturday's bombings in Ankara
Oct. 11 commemoration walk for the victims of Saturday's bombings in Ankara
Ahmet Hakan

-OpEd-

ANKARA — Of course the government did not organize the bloody attack in Ankara. You have to be insane to believe that the AKP government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would put suicide vests on two bombers and send them to Ankara's central train station.

And yet, this question does not end here. There is a "but" that we cannot ignore. So we say: No, the government is not guilty of organizing the deadly bombings, but …

  • The government is left without a single country in the region — or in the world — it can truly call a friend, thanks to its foreign policies of the last three years. We came close to war with at least eight countries. As a result, Turkey has turned into a training ground for terrorist organizations. On this count, the government is guilty.
  • The government has been practicing a policy of polarizing the people, causing hostility among the groups of society for the past five years, hoping that this was the right strategy to keep its majority vote in Parliament. Turkey is thus fertile ground for any kind of provocation. On this count, too, the government is guilty.
  • The intelligence operations of Turkey have failed. The government could not take the necessary precautions. The government could not guarantee the security of its citizens who wanted to practice their democratic right to assemble. In short, the government just watched as dozens of its citizens were slaughtered in the center of the capital. Here too, regardless of who carried out this crime, the government is guilty.

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Geopolitics

Yes, Xi Jinping Is Now More Powerful Than Mao Zedong Ever Was

After being re-elected as head of the Communist Party last year, the Chinese leader has been unanimously re-elected to another five-year term as head of state. Now, wielding more power than any other past Chinese communist leader, he wants to accelerate the rise of Chinese influence around the world.

Photo of huge portrait of Xi Jinping

Huge portrait of Xi Jinping is displayed in the National Day mass pageantry celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China

Yann Rousseau

-Analysis-

BEIJING — Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has been re-elected to a third five-year term at the head of the world's second largest economic power. Nobody was surprised.

The vote took place during a legislative assembly convened to rubber stamp decisions of the authoritarian power, during which 2,952 parliamentarians unanimously approved Xi's re-election before rising, in perfect choreography, to offer a prolonged standing ovation to their leader. As usual, Xi remained completely neutral in the face of the enthusiasm.

His victory was a mere formality after his re-election last fall as the head of the all-powerful party, which controls all of the country's political institutions, and after legislative amendments to erase term limits that would have forced him out.

Xi Jinping, who took over the presidency in 2013, "is now the most powerful leader in the history of the People's Republic, since its founding in 1949. Institutionally, he holds even more power than Mao Zedong," says Suisheng Zhao, a professor and Chinese foreign policy expert at the University of Denver.

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