Month: November 2015

US, UK both suggesting that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was bombed (UPDATED)

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The British government announced today that it's "delaying" flights from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport to the UK on account of how that Russian jet that crashed in the Sinai over the weekend "may well have been brought down by an explosive device." The two most obvious explanations for this move are panic and prudence. You … Continue reading US, UK both suggesting that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was bombed (UPDATED)

Today in Middle Eastern history: the Iran Hostage Crisis begins (1979)

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When a group of Iranian students from an organization called “Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line,” on their own volition though possibly with the approval of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, stormed the American embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and took 66 US citizens hostage, I doubt anybody involved fully realized what was about … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Iran Hostage Crisis begins (1979)

This weekend’s other Turkic national elections

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This wasn't only a good weekend for Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party in Turkey; Azerbaijan's ruling New Azerbaijan Party also won big in that country's parliamentary elections yesterday, taking a majority of the seats in the parliament. New Azerbaijan (Yeni Azərbaycan Partiyası in Azeri, a close-ish linguistic relative of Turkish) is the party of … Continue reading This weekend’s other Turkic national elections

Today in Middle Eastern history: the Balfour Declaration (1917)

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It was on November 2, 1917, when British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour sent a relatively brief letter to Walter Rothschild that would wind up becoming one of the most consequential letters in modern Middle Eastern history. If you’d read it at the time, you probably wouldn’t have envisioned the importance it would come to … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Balfour Declaration (1917)

What happened to Kogalymavia Flight 9268? (UPDATED)

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A Russian plane, Kogalymavia Flight 9268, carrying 224 people from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian Red Sea resort destination, to St. Petersburg, Russia, crashed in the Sinai on Saturday, killing everyone on board. ISIS immediately claimed responsibility, and several international air carriers quickly changed their routes to avoid Sinai airspace, but it's unlikely that ISIS shot this … Continue reading What happened to Kogalymavia Flight 9268? (UPDATED)

Today in Middle Eastern history: the last Ottoman Sultan is deposed (1922)

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The removal of the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI Vahideddin (d. 1926), is among history's greatest anti-climaxes. The Ottomans had (obviously) lost World War I, which resulted in the dismantling of their empire under the terms of their 1918 armistice and the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. Sèvres not only put the empire's Arab dominions under … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the last Ottoman Sultan is deposed (1922)