EU -Turkish Relations: - The Mouse that roars: The Other "Mini" Putin on Europe’s Doorstep - by Mark Leonard -

President Recep Erdogan

Is Turkey the new Russia? That question is increasingly being asked in European capitals as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan adopts a more aggressive foreign policy. In addition to using migration to threaten and finagle the European Union, Erdoğan has also been deploying military power to expand Turkey’s sphere of influence across the wider region.

Since the end of the Cold War, Europeans have viewed regional security through a unipolar Western lens. While NATO guaranteed military security, the EU – with its 80,000-page rulebook for everything from LGBTQ rights to lawnmower sound ordinances – provided legal order. Back in the 1990s, it was widely assumed that the two big non-Western regional players, Russia and Turkey, would gradually be accommodated to this arrangement.

But over the last 15 years, the dream of European unipolarity has given way to a multipolar reality. Both Russia and Turkey have had a long, tortured love-hate relationship with Europe, and both have grown more assertive under national leaders who share a disdain for EU norms and values.

The breakdown of the EU-Russia relationship is well documented; the Turkish story less so. The Iraq War in 2003 complicated Turkey’s relationship with NATO, and its relationship with the EU took a turn for the worse in 2007, when France blocked a key part of its EU accession negotiations. Turkey has since been forging its own path in Syria, the Balkans, and Libya, as well as pursuing new ties with Russia and China.

Of course, the Turkey-Russia relationship is no less complicated, not least because Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin backed different sides in Syria’s civil war. The low point came when Turkey shot down a Russian military plane in 2015. In response, Putin imposed sanctions, which sowed chaos in the Turkish economy and prompted an uncharacteristic apology from Erdoğan.

Despite being a NATO ally,  Turkey has since decided to purchase a Russian-made S-400 missile-defense system over the objections of the United States. And while tensions over the Syria conflict remain, Erdoğan clearly admires how Russia has re-established itself – at relatively little cost – as an important player in the Middle East and North Africa.

Facing growing opposition at home, Erdoğan has adopted the Putin playbook. With the West unwilling to intervene militarily (again) in Libya, Erdoğan saw an opportunity to strut Turkey’s stuff. Following Russia’s approach in Syria, he secured a formal invitation from the Libyan government to intervene. In one fell swoop late last year, he not only boosted Turkey’s image as a regional power, but also clinched a maritime border deal with Libya, thereby disrupting a plan by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel to develop underwater oil and gas fields in the vicinity.

Since then, the EU- and UN-led “Berlin” peace process has sought to end the war in Libya, but Turkey’s military intervention has fundamentally changed the balance of power on the ground. Once again, Russia and Turkey will determine the future of a country that is essential to European interests, only this time it is Turkey that is in charge.

 Erdoğan also seems to have been inspired by the Kremlin’s divide-and-conquer strategy in Europe, where it often squeezes those EU member states that are most reliant on Russian hydrocarbons or markets. Just as Putin has long weaponized the supply of energy, Erdoğan has tried to weaponize the flow of migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East. When the EU announced a new naval mission to block the flow of weapons into Libya, Turkey dangled the migrant threat in front of Malta, which then signaled that it would veto the mission’s funding.

For years, Europeans told themselves that Russia was a kind of prodigal son, and that the European unipolar order remained sound. Yet that made Europe an easy target for the Kremlin’s divide-and-conquer strategy. Only relatively recently did the bloc devise new policies and a robust sanctions regime to deter Russian aggression. And even now – despite the best efforts of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron – the EU still has not created effective channels of communication with Russia for addressing shared problems.

Turkey is not yet a new Russia, but it could become one if the situation is mishandled. For now, most Europeans still regard Turkey as a complicated partner rather than as a “systemic rival.” But Europeans should heed the hard-won lessons of dealing with Russia over the past 15 years. The EU-Turkey relationship needs a new, mutually agreed set of principles, as well as clear red lines to deter further destabilization in the region.

To that end, Europeans should make clear that the EU accession process can be either rolled back or pushed forward, and that a more transactional relationship will involve the use of both carrots and sticks. The challenge will be to ensure that there is still room for political engagement on issues concerning shared security in a region influenced not just by Europe and Turkey, but also by Russia, the US, and a rising China.

Read more at: 
The Other Putin on Europe’s Doorstep by Mark Leonard - Project Syndicate

The EU's Migrant Problem:Will the EU continue paying to keep migrants away? - by Elena Sánchez Nicolás

Four years since the peak of the migration crisis in Europe, member states still have not found a coordinated solution to tackle migratory consequences in an effective way.

Since populist and anti-migration governments succeed entering into European politics, the EU has made deals with several countries, such as Libya, Turkey or Niger, to keep asylum seekers away from Europe's shores.

In February 2017, EU leaders agreed on increasing cooperation with Libya to reduce irregular immigration - providing the country with €237m to fund programmes addressing migration challenges.

But, after deadly airstrikes hit detention centres this summer around Libya's capital, Tripoli, the EU is now planning on evacuating vulnerable migrants and refugees to Rwanda.

The east African country will receive some 500 migrants evacuated from Libya, although it is unclear when this will happen, according to the New York Times.

Read more: Will the EU continue paying to keep migrants away?

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Slavery: Are there more people in slavery now than during the transatlantic slave trade? - Yes indeed - by Emma Beswick

Panellists at 2018's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos present a new global fund that they hope will reduce modern slavery in identified areas by 50 per cent.

With estimates stating 40.3 million people are currently in slavery worldwide, Gary Haugen, CEO of the International Justice Mission said there are more people in slavery today than were extracted from Africa over 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade.

Haugen was one of the panellists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, presenting and discussing a new fund, led by the US and UK, whose goal is to raise $1.5 billion (€1.2 billion) combat slavery.

"The modern slavery problem is massive ... but it's more stoppable than it's ever been," added United States Senator Robert Corker, chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations.

Indeed, slavery is now illegal in all countries, yet the modern slave trade has nearly doubled in the last years, mainly in 15 countries.

Note EU-Digest: What is interesting is that the many activist who  today still loudly condemn slave trade  by European Colonial Powers of the past are remarkably silent to when it concerns today's slave trade and practices which are even more wide=spread than those of the past.  

Read more: Are there more people in slavery now than during the transatlantic slave trade? | Euronews

Middle East: Egypt strikes Libya after deadly bus attack against Coptic Christians

Egypt's president says his air force struck bases in Libya where militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained, but gave no details.

Senior officials said that the bases are in eastern Libya. They said the warplanes on Friday targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al-Qaeda.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in Egypt, wherever they may be. He also directly appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after at least 28 Coptic Christians, including two children, were killed by militants south of Cairo, el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries that finance, train or arm extremists be punished.

Read more: Egypt strikes Libya after deadly bus attack against Christians - World - CBC News

France: Sarkozy received suitcases full of cash from Libya’s Gaddafi, businessman says

Just days before a crucial French presidential primary, former President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing fresh allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal campaign financing from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

An investigation into the case, involving funding for Sarkozy’s successful 2007 presidential campaign, has been underway since 2013.

In a video interview with the investigative website Mediapart released Tuesday, a French-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, said he delivered three suitcases from Libya, containing 5 million euros in cash, to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff and campaign director, Claude Guéant.

Takieddine said he had given a written deposition to judges on November 12 detailing three cash handovers between 2006 and 2007 and his meetings with Guéant and Sarkozy.

At no point, he says, did he see the two men look inside the cases after he dropped them off at the Interior Ministry, where Sarkozy was minister at the time.

Read moreL Sarkozy received suitcases full of cash from Libya’s Gaddafi, businessman says - France 24

Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misrata stalemate - by Chris Stephen

Libyan rebels in Misrata said on Thursday night that they are in discussions with France to supply weapons and ammunition to fighters in the besieged coastal enclave.

The frontlines have remained in stalemate for more than a month, with the city enduring nightly bombardments from rockets, and rebel fighters saying they lack the heavy weapons to break the ring of government forces around the city.

"We are in discussion with France to supply us with the guns," said rebel military spokesman Ibrahim Betalmal. "We are trying to do our best to get ammunition and guns from France and inshallah [God willing] we are going to get those guns. These are negotiations with France, not with Nato."

French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said on Wednesday that France had airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians in a mountain region south of Tripoli. The deliveries of guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions took place in early June in the western Nafusa mountains, when Gaddafi's troops had encircled civilians.

For more: Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misrata stalemate | World news | The Guardian

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe deeply involved on the side of Gaddafi in Libyan to combat popular uprising

ZimbabweIt is no secret that another dictator, President Robert Mugabe, has sent troops to Libya to defend Colonel Gadaffi, his long-standing ally and financier. Several hundred mercenaries including serving and retired Zimbabwean soldiers, and a handful of air force pilots recently flew from Harare to Libya on a chartered flight joining Gadaffi’s increasingly desperate battle to stay in power.

Zimbabwean state intelligence sources have stated some of the troops were from the commando regiment; others were from the Fifth Brigade that was once trained by North Korea and is infamous for crushing a rebellion in Matabeleland in the early 1980s in which 20,000 civilians were killed.

The Zimbabweans have joined other African mercenaries from the Ivory Coast, Chad and Mauritania, who are now fighting on behalf of Gadaffi in Tripoli against the popular uprising that has seized the east of the country.

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