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Turkey

Citing Syrian Refugee Influx, Turkey Pushes (So Far In Vain) For Buffer Zone

More than 100,000 Syrian refugees are thought to be in Turkey
More than 100,000 Syrian refugees are thought to be in Turkey
Razi Canikligil

NEW YORK - Turkey intends to keep up its diplomatic efforts to establish a buffer zone in Syria, despite the United Nations’ failure last week to reach a resolution at the Security Council meeting on Thursday.

“How long are we going to sit and watch while an entire generation is being wiped out by random bombardment and deliberate mass targeting?" Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu asked after last Thursday’s meeting ended in deadlock.

"I was expecting this meeting to produce tangible solutions to the suffering of the Syrian people," he said. "We don't have anything new to say to thousands of Syrians who suffer at the hands of the regime as the UN is entrapped by inaction."

Davutoglu’s remarks come on the heels of a statement he made earlier in the week urging the UN to create a safe haven within Syria. "We will emphasize that this burden now needs to be shared by the whole international community, not just by Syria's neighbors," he said.

If a buffer zone were to be implemented, it would require a UN resolution for a no-fly zone -- a measure that is unlikely to be approved since Security Council members Russia and China consider it a violation of Syria's sovereignty.

The council said that no contingency plan would be ruled out, but at the same time no new details were revealed about when such plans would be considered seriously.

Turkey has seen a mass influx of refugees seeking asylum from the bloodshed in Syria. Ankara said it is now housing as many as 100,000 refugees and cannot handle any more, even as streams of people continue turning up at the border. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees anticipates that the number could soon reach 200,000.

Terrorists training in the camps?

Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari also took a stab at Turkey, calling it “Syria’s Executioner.” He accused powers within the Security Council of "promoting imminent military intervention under humanitarian pretexts."

"It is clear that certain states do not see the issue of humanitarian aid in any way other than as part of a biased political agenda," he said.

Following the meeting, he went on to accuse Turkey of training terrorists within the refugee camps and sending them out against the Syrian government with weapons and war tactics.

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Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A photo of hands holding onto a smartphone

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet.

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification. The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

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Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix, for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

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