Oriental Review

The Great War For Civilization: A Lesson From History

by Gulam ASGAR MITHA (Canada)

Recently I was listening to Jerry Day’s video titled We Are Being Judged By What We Permit To Be Done. He says “As Germany was in 1939, America is today bringing unprovoked horror and death to a host of countries (Muslim of course).” There is hardly any untruth in what he has to say. There […]

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A Public Saudi-“Israeli” Rapprochement Could Backfire On Riyadh

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

It’s been an open secret in the Mideast for years now that Saudi Arabia and “Israel” have been cooperating with one another against their shared Iranian rival, and that this and their equally strategic ties with the US is what’s brought them together. However, due to political sensitivities on both sides, neither has formally recognized […]

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Analyzing Austria’s “Refugee”/Immigrant Proposal For The EU Periphery

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

The Austrians recently called on the Western Balkans, Georgia, and Egypt to build “refugee”/immigrant centers for processing and potentially indefinitely housing the hundreds of thousands of non-Western individuals that are streaming into the EU. Mr. Sebastian Kurz told the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper that “It is not that important where exactly they [the centers] […]

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How Trump’s Trying To Win Back Turkey

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

It should be evident to all objective observers by now that “America First” doesn’t equate to international isolationism or peace. Rather, just as the author predicted in his Sputnik analysis on Trump’s foreign policy right after his election, the 45th President is taking a firm stand against Iran and China, and even making overtures to […]

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“Neo-Marxism” And “The New Middle East”

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

One of the most curious quirks of recent history is that self-proclaimed followers of the Cold War-era ideology of Marxism are on the upswing two and a half decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and interestingly enough, they’re making on-the-ground progress in the Mideast of all places. This may come as a surprise […]

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What awaits Syria at the Astana talks?

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

The Russian-Iranian-Turkish Tripartite is preparing to mediate a new round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana sometime soon, and President Assad just announced that he is ready to negotiate on “everything” provided that the process follows the legal mechanisms laid out in the Syrian Constitution. Australian professor and prominent Syrian activist Tim Anderson is correct when […]

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The crisis for Christianity in the Middle East

By Kristian GIRLING (UK)

Introduction Christianity currently faces an existential crisis in its place of origin which is seeing an exodus of Christian migrants in the face of persecution and substantial socio-economic decline. The crisis is being overlooked or ignored by many states of Christian heritage and even by many churches. Few institutions have taken the opportunity to extend […]

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Political Uncertainty In Post-Daesh Iraq

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA) & Hamsa HADDAD (Syria)

The political future of Iraq is uncertain because of the intensified domestic splits between its constituent Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish communities which were exacerbated by Daesh over the past couple of years. Post-2003 Iraq has been continually plagued by communal violence, but never before had each of its three communities been so divided from one […]

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Syria’s diplomatic ammo going into the Astana political fight

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

(Please read the first part of this series titled “Is the Tripartite really on the verge of ‘dicing up’ Syria?” prior to this article. It deals with the finer details about Reuters’ speculative report, which the author does not believe is validated or accurate, but nonetheless deserves to be addressed. In connection with this, it’s […]

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Is the Tripartite really on the verge of “dicing up” Syria?

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)

Reuters just released a scandalous report jam-packed with statements from “unnamed sources” alleging that the Tripartite of Russia, Iran, and Turkey are conspiring to “dice Syria into spheres of influence”. Considering that it’s chock-full of unverifiable “statements” and rampant speculation, the article shouldn’t be taken too seriously and could very well be disinformation designed to […]

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Envoy killed in a ‘parallel universe’

By ORIENTAL REVIEW

The Russian ambassador was killed in Ankara on the evening of Dec. 19 .  The killer, a 22-year-old Turkish graduate of the police academy who had been fired in July after being deemed untrustworthy, fired 11 bullets into the ambassador’s back as he finished addressing the attendees at the opening of the Russia Through Turkish […]

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Who planned the terrorist operation in Palmyra?

By ORIENTAL REVIEW

The unexpected militant attack on Palmyra on Dec. 10 was an unpleasant revelation for everyone who expected IS/Daesh to quickly succumb after its stinging defeat in Aleppo.  Around 5,000 terrorists overcame the resistance of smaller SAA contingent who were forced to withdraw toward the T4 airbase.  Fortunately, 80% of the civilians had been successfully evacuated […]

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