Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, Emigration in Ecuador, Turkey’s Local Vote, and More
Last week at Inkstick Media.
Hello, everyone.
At the tail end of March, voters headed to the polls across Turkey to cast votes in local elections. The country has endured a decade of near-constant election mode, Joshua Levkowitz reports from Istanbul, but voters sent a “harsh message” to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party.
Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has now passed the six-month mark, and Israeli soldiers recently carried out a two-week operation at the Shifa Medical Complex. As reported by Mohammed Ali*, who writes for Inkstick under a pseudonym, the occupation of the hospital complex proved deadly for Palestinians sheltering there and in the surrounding area.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, a slate of militant attacks has targeted Chinese interests in the country. As Marcus Andreopoulos argues, the uptick in violence has strained ties between Islamabad and Beijing.
That’s not all we’ve got at Inkstick. And if you’re not already, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
“Ecuador’s Escalating Emigration” by Austin Landis (April 1)
Experts say a confluence of factors have created a vacuum ripe for organized crime to take hold since 2017: Ecuador’s geographical location, a 2016 peace agreement that demobilized Colombia’s largest armed group, and the neglect of key government structures after former president Rafael Correa left office.
“Fika and Feminism: Part 2” by Laicie Heeley (April 1)
It took two years, after holdups from Turkey and Hungary, but Sweden has officially joined NATO. It’s a move not everyone in Sweden is super psyched about. The latest episode of the Things That Go Boom podcast asks whether a peace-loving nation with a war-loving legacy can keep the peace when someone starts a war in its backyard.
“Inside Israel’s Operation at Shifa Hospital” by Mohammed Ali* (April 2)
As Israel carried out a two-week operation targeting the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, reports of fatalities spread. One woman shares her family’s night of horror under Israeli soldiers’ occupation of the medical complex.
“Can a Transitional Government Succeed in Haiti?” by Nicolás Devia-Valbuena and Keith Mines (April 2)
To gain the trust of the Haitian people, the new governing council will need its own popular “enablers,” a systematic way to include many more sectors of Haitian society that are currently ignored or deliberately excluded from governance.
“Nobody Cared About Turkey’s Elections — Until Results Came In” by Joshua Levkowitz (April 3)
Turkey has been in an election mode for a decade with nearly each year offering a critical vote. Over the weekend, Turks once again went to the polls for nationwide municipal elections. The results presented a setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his conservative AKP party.
“What US Setback in West African Sahel Means for the Forever War” by Nick Turse (April 3)
Such setbacks there are just the latest in a series of stalemates, fiascos, or outright defeats that have come to typify America’s Global War on Terror. During 20-plus years of armed interventions, US military missions have been repeatedly upended across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
“Deep Dive: This Must Be the Place” by Emily Tamkin (April 4)
The authors of a new paper explore the roles of factors like place and resentment among adherents of the radical right. Using Germany as a case study, they found that areas of former East Germany (except Berlin) showed especially high concentrations of resentment.
“Pakistan's Crumbling Security Situation Threatens China Ties” by Marcus Andreopoulos (April 4)
On March 26, Pakistan endured its fifth militant attack in a 10-day period. That attack killed five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver, and it brought the 10-day death toll up to 18. As militants increasingly target Chinese interests in the country, the relationship between Pakistan and China appears on the cusp of fracture.
“The China-India-US Imbroglio” by Anuttama Banerji (April 5)
New developments suggest that despite the US viewing India as a strategic bulwark against China, the India-US bilateral partnership cannot rely on countering the perceptible Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific alone. India will have to focus on both traditional and non-traditional security areas.
From the desk of Patrick Strickland, managing editor of Inkstick Media.
Photo credit: Muneer Ahmed Ok via Unsplash.