Friday, October 15, 2010 

Autumn has arrived up here in the northern Borderlands, with the Borderlands Lodge slowly getting ready for the winter ahead. 

The weather continues to be gorgeous, only a bit chillier than before—in the 60s, rather than the 70s. Today was a gorgeous bluebird day, sunny and crisp.

Anyway, I thought I'd send some purple mountain majesty your way:


It's starting to get a bit autumnal up at the Borderlands Lodge, but that just means that the ski season is getting closer...

____

Here's a little late-week N&P:

Russia and ex-USSR

Mirkasim Usmanov, a giant within the scholarly community of Tatarstan, has passed away. He will be greatly missed.

____

Uh-oh: protests after Sunday elections in Kyrgyzstan.

Here is a different take on the elections.

____

The Jamestown Spooks report that rule of law under retreat in Ukraine

It would be nice if news organizations like the Jamestown Spooks would be as diligent about reporting on constitutional abuses among US-friendly governments as they are reporting such events among Moscow-friendly governments.

____

Moscow getting impatient with ineffective American war on drugs in Afghanistan.
____

USA

Juan Cole has a good piece on the anti-Muslim fear-mongering of Palin, others.
____

Hillary waives requirement to attest to government of Afghanistan having provided assistance in war against the Taliban, fighting poppy production.

____

US diplomats and generals pushing for reconciliation between Karzai government and Taliban.

On the one hand, this seems like a good idea. Our real enemy is not the Taliban, but rather any entity that is devoted to attacking the US. The Taliban were attacked because they had allowed Afghanistan to be transformed into an al-Qaeda training ground. If the Taliban can be de-linked from al-Qaeda, then good.

But the move also raises the question, yet again, of what we're trying to achieve in Afghanistan. Working with a group like the Taliban, any argument that we're actually trying to improve life for Afghans will really cease to be credible in the eyes of most people.

So why are we in Afghanistan? Well, let's look at a map:



Now I remember!
____

Turkey

Fethullah Gulen speaks out on latest 'infiltration' buzz.

____

Two more Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with the PKK

____

Ozal murder rumors gaining steam, getting more ink. Ex-aide calls for ex-president to be exhumed

____

Taraf is reporting (in Turkish) that one of the two gun-wielding individuals that suspicious Alevis had reported to police last Saturday is actually a sergeant in the gendarmes of Hayat province, located close to the Syrian border. The other person arrested, a woman, works for a private security firm.

The Alevis are a religious minority in Turkey that has at times had difficult relations with Turkey's Sunni majority—the Sivas massacre of 1993 being one of the most notorious incidents in recent memory.

The story is interesting because of accusations that the Turkish state has been involved in carrying out provocations against religious and ethnic minorities in Turkey. Indeed, it was this sort of activity that the Ergenekon investigation was originally supposed to examine until Ergenekon, which I've written about a lot already on this blog, was transformed into something else entirely.

When the two individuals were arrested the Alevis were participating in a 24-hour sitdown-strike demanding that mandatory Islamic education in Turkish schools be ended.

Mandatory religious education in schools (for Muslims) was introduced in the aftermath of the military coup of 1980. The Turkish military then feared communism much more than political Islamic movements, and therefore decreed religious instruction as a means of warding of communistic atheism.
____

I hope you have enjoyed your N & P—see you later!