By Vestnik Kavkaza
"Moscow-Led Trade Bloc Begins in Troubled Times" an article with such a headline was published by The New York Times. The article told about the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia joining and reviews the implications and the prospects of the bloc. It says that the Russian-dominated bloc has been politically controversial and its early days are being overshadowed by the sharp deterioration of Russia's economy in recent months.
The union aims to create a single integrated market for the free movement of goods and services over a total population of more than 180 million people, something like the 28-nation European Union. Unlike the EU, the bloc does not have a single currency, but is expected to try to establish one at some point. The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan is expected to join by mid-year and Tajikistan is also a prospective member.
"Both Kazakhstan and Belarus want to distance themselves from Russian policies in Ukraine ... Naturally, none of this helps to consolidate the EEU," Carnegie Moscow Center analyst Alexey Malashenko wrote in a commentary.
The Washington Post published an article headlined "Ekrem Dumanli: Turkey’s witch hunt against the media". Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily newspaper in Turkey, told about about his arrest process and obstacles to freedom of the press in Turkey.
"Just last week, a 16-year-old was arrested for pointing out corruption. On Tuesday, two journalists critical of the government, Sedef Kabas and Mehmet Baransu, were detained over tweets. My newspaper, Zaman, and I are just the latest victims of Erdogan’s witch hunt."
"Despite all this, I will never lose hope in Turkey. After all, this is not the first downward spiral that the nation has gone through. Having heard the domestic and international outcry after Zaman was raided, I feel even more optimistic. My wife and I have named our baby girl, who came into the world while I was in detention, Saadet, which means bliss and happiness. Saadet symbolizes our belief in the brighter future of Turkish democracy. The darkest hour of the night is just before dawn."
Another article in The Washington Post is dedicated to Russia and called " Syrian opposition to discuss Russian peace plan". The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting Friday to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria’s civil war.
Russian diplomats have been shuttling between the sides in recent weeks to sound out their willingness to attend the meeting that the Kremlin has said it hopes to convene after Jan. 20.
Russia has said that the first stage of talks would include members of both the government-tolerated internal opposition and opposition groups based abroad, including the Coalition. At the next stage, they would be joined by Syrian government representatives.
The Economist published an analytical article headlined "Turkey’s future: Forward to the past". The article basically answers the following question: "Can Turkey’s past glories be revived by its grandiose Islamist president?"
Indeed, Turkey’s increasingly autocratic president faces several serious challenges in 2015. The first is to maintain his grip on AK. Signs of internal dissent recently appeared when Binali Yildirim, one of Mr Erdogan’s trusted people, declared that the president would chair a cabinet meeting on January 5th and Ahmet Davutoglu denied this meeting. Moreover, the president is said to want to decide who should be on AK’s list of candidates in the forthcoming election.
Another big issue is corruption. A small but growing group in AK feel uneasy about the charges that have been levelled against Mr Erdogan and his inner circle.
A third headache for Mr Erdogan, perhaps his biggest, is the economy. Sagging oil prices have boosted it. The current-account deficit is expected to shrink and inflation to fall this year. Yet growth needs to exceed 3% if living standards are to be maintained, and Turkey shows few signs of managing that without a politically testing programme of liberalising reforms.
The Financial Times has published an article about drug problems in Iran entitled "Rise in young women drug addicts triggers alarm in Iran". Shisheh — a high-purity crystalline methamphetamine — has become the second most popular drug after opium among young people seeking an escape from social and economic hardship.
The roots of the problem lie in the social change bubbling beneath the surface of Iranian society. Young adults, steeped in new ideas gleaned via the internet and social media, are increasingly rebelling against the traditional and Islamic strictures to which their parents conformed and seeking to emulate what they see as more modern norms. In recent years, the divorce rate in Iran has risen and marriage and birth rates have fallen.
