The 15 million Turkish Kurds rejoice and hope after Ocalan calls for an end to armed struggle
Turkey's Kurdish community of 15 million has celebrated Nowruz - a time-honoured pre-Islamic festival marking the start of the spring and the beginning of the New Year on the Persian calendar - with more excitement and optimism than in many years, Kuwaiti academic Mohammed Al Yusefi wrote in yesterday's edition of the Dubai-based newspaper Al Bayan.
During the festivities last week about 250,000 Kurds, dressed up in their colourful traditional attire, gathered in a public square in the city of Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey, the Kurdish heartland. They were about to hear a "historic speech from their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who has been locked up in a solitary prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara since his abduction in Kenya in 1999", Al Yusefi said.
"They were really in for a landmark speech; their charismatic leader called on the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to stop fighting and to withdraw from Turkish territory."
"Today, we wake up to a new Turkey in a new Middle East," Ocalan told his followers and sympathisers in an address relayed by a Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament. " … We say to the peoples of this region - Arabs, Persians, Turks and Kurds - enough killing one other … We tell them that we have started a new chapter, a phase where politics takes priority over weapons. This is the beginning."
Ocalan's declaration is the culmination of a long armed struggle led by the PKK since a few years after its founding as a political party in the mid-1970s, with a far-left agenda advocating Kurdish nationalism.
The party's armed wing has long engaged in a bloody fight against Turkish forces. About 40,000 people have been killed, most of them Kurds, and thousands more Kurds are held in Turkey' s penitentiaries, the writer said.
Hundreds of Kurdish villages were severely damaged during the struggle, among other material losses estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars over nearly three decades.
Turkey's attitude to the Kurdish question has significantly mellowed since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Before then, the Kurds had been denied their cultural rights for decades, ever since the establishment of modern Turkey in 1923.
AKP's recognition of the legitimacy of a range of Kurdish demands - such as access to schooling and media sources in the Kurdish language - has helped to bring Ankara and the PKK to the negotiating table, and that in turn led eventually to Ocalan's change of policy.
"These are glorious, momentous times for the Kurdish people," the author said in conclusion. "One genuinely hopes that peace will prevail in those beautiful, mountainous quarters, and that continued dialogue, not guns, takes the upper hand."
In Syria both sides are using foreign fighters
Moaz Al Khatib, the Syrian opposition coalition leader, has dismissed criticism that the opposition is allowing foreign fighters to join the battle against the regime, Abdulrahman Al Rashed noted in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat.
Mr Al Khatib said the criticism is off base when no one acts against the Russians, Iranians and Hizbollah members fighting alongside the regime.
Mr Al Khatib has a point, the writer said. Even in wars, there are rules of engagement that are supposed to apply to both parties. Bashar Al Assad's forces have not respected any such rules, and so they cannot call on the opposition forces, which are the weaker side, to observe them.
The regime is using warplanes to shell towns, cities, hospitals and schools, and using ambulances to carry fighters. Their acts have become more ruthless as they suffer setbacks, with use of chemical weapons reported in Rif Dimashq.
Had critics of the opposition backed the revolutionaries early enough, the situation would not have become this complicated, the writer added. Toppling the regime 18 months ago would have been much easier.
It is no longer possible to open a new front against extremists joining the rebels from abroad.
The war is between just two forces, the regime and the rebels. It does not make sense to ask the rebels to combat those who fight alongside them.
Too early to assess results of Arab Spring
Media outlets and social-network members are increasingly using expressions such as "the so-called Arab Spring", "the Islamists' spring", and "the Arab Autumn", Ahmed Amiri noted in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper Al Ittihad.
"I fear there will come a day when the term 'Arab Spring' is outlawed," he wrote.
"Every day, more people are asking 'didn't we tell you?', claiming clairvoyance and intelligence, even if they didn't see anything coming before Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire."
Either your spring immediately produces fully-fledged democracies, under which the Arab citizens revel in prosperity and hold every official accountable, or this spring of yours is chaos, sedition and mayhem, the writer went on.
This is all-or-nothing thinking, with no compromise or nuances.
But this is a vast movement of change in five countries after decades of stagnation and tyranny. The all-or-nothing attitude is like asking a woman, the day after she divorced her husband following years of abuse, "do you think your life will be better now?"
It does not stand to reason to judge change in a certain nation after one or two years when the nation in question suffered dictatorship, corruption and frustration for decades.
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk
translation@thenational.ae
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Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Kanguva
Director: Siva
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
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Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
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The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
THE BIO
Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13
Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife
What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents.
Favorite place to go in the UAE: A quiet beach.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated
Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
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Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
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