Foreign Digest: Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Belarus

Syria: Israel struck Iranian-backed targets at the airport of Aleppo, in the north of Syria, the furthest north attack the Jewish state has launched against Iranian-backed terrorists and forces of the Islamic Republic, which is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Iran is backing the tyrannical Syrian regime of Bashar Assad in its civil war against moderates and other Islamists. The brutal war has killed several hundred thousand people and caused millions to flee. Meanwhile, the last of a trio of elderly Greek women from the island of Lesbos, who were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for aiding Syrian refugees has died. They had themselves been refugees from Muslim Turkey. Turkey: The opposition to the authoritarian Islamist Turkish Government has united to oppose him in the next presidential election in May, when there will also be parliamentary elections. Ranging from center-left to the secular nationalists, and including Kurdish parties, the opposition stands a reasonable chance of defeating the tyrannical President of Turkey. It had won the most seats in a previous parliamentary election, but was unable to form a coalition government, leaving the Head of State in office. With his increased authoritarianism, despite the Turkish Constitution not establishing a strong presidency, he obtained approval of constitutional changes that gave him greater powers. Georgia: After massive protests and international condemnation, Georgia revoked a law ostensibly targeted at foreign agents, but which would have restricted freedoms of speech, press and assembly by criminalizing work for partly foreign-owned professional media or political organizations. The Georgian President praised the revocation as the right move and hailed the power of the people. The former Soviet Republic’s government has become authoritarian in recent years and less pro-Western and more pro-Russian, despite Russia’s invasion in 2008. Belarus: Upset over the Belarusian dictatorship’s complicity in the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Belarusian guerillas have been conducting a sabotage campaign against Belarusian infrastructure used by the Russians and against Russian military assets hosted by Belarus, as well as through cyberattacks against the Belarusian and Russian governments’ war-related web sites. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, seized territory and fomented a bloody secessionist movement, and then launched a full-scale invasion last year, sending troops from both Russia and Belarus. Russia’s tyrant, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin, is trying to restore the Soviet Union. Belarus and Ukraine are both former Soviet Republics. A popular opposition was formed after the Belarusian dictator rigged elections in 2020. Relying on Russian support, he then cracked down on dissent and is now arresting supposedly suspected saboteurs, but the opposition is too broad, united and well-organized for his intimidation and is aided by its large exile community.