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Armenia "ready" to open border with Turkey, more aid passes through, FMs meet in Ankara
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Armenia "ready" to open border with Turkey, more aid passes through, FMs meet in Ankara

15 February 2023
The Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan has told journalists at a briefing on Tuesday (14 February) that Armenia is "ready"  for opening of the shared border with Turkey and normalisation of relations any time. "The Armenian and Turkish sides are holding discussions on the issue and will continue the discussions, hoping that it will take place as soon as possible," Grigoryan said. He added that an agreement on opening the border for nationals of third countries had indeed been reached last year between Armenia and Turkey, but said that no timeframe was discussed. The agreement was struck in July 2022, but changes on the ground have not yet materialised. Tweeting early in the morning on Wednesday, the Spokesperson for the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vahan Hunanyan announced, "Armenia continues sending humanitarian aid to earthquake-affected regions. Late last night, trucks loaded with the second batch of humanitarian aid crossed the Armenian-Turkish border through the Margara bridge."
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Opinion
Tourism in the Gulf is a game changer
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Tourism in the Gulf is a game changer

14 February 2023
The process of opening-up Saudi Arabia to the world is going on in earnest. As a part of the Vision 2030 blueprint, masterminded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi government is implementing a plan, which, amongst many other things, aims to turn the Kingdom into a popular tourist destination by the end of the decade. Other GCC countries, but particularly UAE, Qatar and Oman, also seek a growth in tourism, and see the industry as one of the potential pillars for their post oil economies. In many countries, tourism is a major economic activity that contributes to economic prosperity. It is also an industry which generates revenues that quickly seep downwards to the very grassroots of society, and so everyone benefits from it. But apart from the economic and financial gains, tourism can also be an instrument of change within societies, opening up conservative, inward looking communities to the outside world. Several Arab Gulf countries have the ambition of turning themselves into major tourist destinations, and some have already considerable success. The potential is great, but there are also some risks.
Dennis Sammut
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Young voices
Peace in Yemen: Many Hopes and Endless Obstacles
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Peace in Yemen: Many Hopes and Endless Obstacles

13 February 2023
In this piece for commonspace.eu, Mohammed Abdulmughni discusses why past attempts at brokering peace in Yemen's current civil war have failed. Part of the problem is the failure to address root causes, and numerous economic factors also serve as catalysts for the war, he argues. Wars often break out when the various ambitions of two or more opposing parties are irreconcilable by peaceful means. These ambitions could be related to territorial expansion, continuing a legacy of enacting “historical revenge” on the opposing party, or tyrannical desires based on ethnic and religious fanaticism. While wars can flare up quickly, stopping them on the other hand is almost always slow and difficult. This has been the case for almost all wars across history. The Yemeni war is no exception. Indeed, the Yemeni war has many complex and overlapping dimensions, as has been noted by many observers and political analysts.
Mohammed Abdulmughni
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News
Turkey-Armenia border opens for the first time in 30 years for earthquake aid
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Turkey-Armenia border opens for the first time in 30 years for earthquake aid

11 February 2023
The Margara-Alican border bridge connecting Armenia and Turkey has been opened to allow five Armenian aid trucks to pass to the Turkish regions affected by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Monday (6 February). It is the first time the Turkey-Armenia border has been opened in 30 years. "Trucks with humanitarian aid have crossed the Margara bridge on the border and are on their way to the earthquake-stricken region," Vahan Hunanyan, a spokesperson for Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, wrote on Twitter. Serdar Kılıç, Ankara’s special envoy to Yerevan, hailed the arrival of the aid trucks, writing on Twitter that he "will always remember the generous aid sent by the people of Armenia to help alleviate the sufferings of our people in the earthquake-striken region in Türkiye." The bridge, which connects the village of Margara in Armenia with the village of Alican in Turkey, had been closed since 1993, when Turkey closed its borders with Armenia in protest at the First Karabakh War.