Late Saturday night, Czech police detained Syrian Kurdish political leader Salih Muslim on Turkish orders. Turkish president Erdogan suggested Sunday morning that Turkey expects the Czech Republic to “return” Muslim to Turkish custody—though Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and current TEV-DEM foreign relations official, is a Syrian citizen in Europe legally for diplomatic concerns.
Category Archives: Czech
The arrest of Salih Muslim is only one chapter in the Kurdish chronicles of betrayal
by Meghan Bodette
Another anti-establishment vote in Eastern Europe? A short analysis of the Czech elections
In a fracturing EU, we need class struggle and movement politics to fight for working people throughout Europe, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica
There seems to be an easy refrain in the western media about the countries of eastern Europe. The region is being swept by a tidal wave of right wing, anti-establishment parties hostile to the European Union, the story goes.
Another European country embraces populism
The Czech Republic has joined a growing list of countries — from Germany to Austria – where the traditional Left is losing to conservative populism. This weekend’s election gave anti–European Union billionaire Andrej Babis’s ANO (“Yes” in Czech) party 30 percent of the vote, a 19-point lead over the next largest party, the conservative Civic Democrats. Babis will almost certainly become prime minister in coalition with smaller parties.
A Rally at the US Embassy in Prague
On September 20, there was a rally at the US Embassy in Prague timed to the 72nd General Assembly of the United Nations. The organizers of the rally, the NGO “Czech-Slovenian Congress”, handed over an open letter to the staff of the American diplomatic mission calling on the US government to stop violating the norms of international law and respect human rights. According to the participants of the protest action, Washington is pushing humanity towards a new world war.
Protests against NATO have been held in several European countries
The NATO summit in Warsaw was followed by protests not only in Poland but also in other European countries. June 25 protest was held in Prague. The peace demonstration was organised by several peace organizations including the Czech Peace Movement and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. It took place on Wenceslas Square in Prague city centre. July 8, several hundred people protested against NATO in Bratislava, Slovakia. A small protest took place in Riga, capital of Latvia. Left-wing activists held a protest in Kishinev the capital of Moldova. Unfortunately, all these protests against the aggressive policy of the alliance were not marked with multiplicity. Most people in Eastern Europe continue to passively observe strengthening of militarism in the region.
