Turkish convergence to the EU
Güven Sak, PhD
28 February 2021
Here is a great Albert Einstein quote: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” You need to first define problems, which will hopefully separate the significant facts from the trivial ones. Our European friends sometimes don’t think about the problem of Turkey clearly and fail to distinguish the essential from the trivial.
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Perspective on Turkish zones in Syria
Güven Sak, PhD
21 February 2021
A news story featured in the New York Times about the Turkish-controlled zones in northern Syria has been in talks recently. The story quotes Jarir Sulaiman, a once-wealthy landowner in the village of Khiara in the south of Damascus and now living in one of the Turkish-controlled zones in Syria, saying “we won’t go back to our villages until Turkey gives us protection” and “we will not be able to survive without Turks.” The story reports on the relative safety of the zones and how there is still a long way to go in terms of improving the lives of their residents.
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Our problem with the Green Deal
Güven Sak, PhD
14 February 2021
The Green Deal is “Europe’s man on the moon moment” said Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, in December 2019. She presented the program as Europe’s new all-encompassing growth strategy, saying “the old growth model based on fossil fuels and pollution. It is out of date and out of touch with the planet.”
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Damage control in Washington DC
Güven Sak, PhD
07 February 2021
“Humans are pattern-seeking, story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories, whether they exist or not,” said Michael Shermer, an American science writer. That must be why I can’t help but see a pattern taking shape in Washington. Let me tell you my story.
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