Hazar World - Sayı: 13 - Aralık 2013

ALMANAC
haldun yavaş
Caspian Strategy Institute
Secretary General
Many incidents occurred throughout the world in 2013
are still in our minds.
State of Detroit went bankrupt, the USA put up its
shutter for a while. The European Union, which cannot
get out of economic crisis, accepted Croatia as the 28th
member. Japan took the opportunity of hosting the 2020
Olympic and Paralympic Games, Pope resigned from his
position for the first time in 600 years since 1415.
Azerbaijan blasted-off its first satellite named Azerspace 1.
Iron Lady Margaret H. Thatcher, who remained in the
office of Prime Ministry for the longest period of time in
the history of England, passed away. President of
Venezuela Hugo Chavez was defeated by cancer during
his fourth period. Mohamed Morsi, having been elected
with the support of more than half of the public after the
30 years rule of Mubarak, was dismissed off his office by a
coup d’état.
General elections have been held in many countries.
The winners of the elections can be listed as; Miloš Zeman
in Czechoslovakia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Raúl Castro
in Cuba, Filip Vujanović in Montenegro, Nicolás Maduro
in Venezuela, Giorgio Napolitano in Italy, Horacio Cartes
in Paraguay, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in Mongolia,
Mamnoon Hussain in Pakistan, Hassan Ruhani in Iran,
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in the Republic of Mali, Tony
Abbott in Australia, Edi Rama in Albania, Angela Merkel
in Germany, İlham Aliyev in Azerbaijan, Giorgi
Margvelashvili in Georgia, and Emomalii Rahmon in
Tajikistan. Additionally Xi Jinping took office as the new
president of China.
Meteor showers caused several injuries in Russia.
Thousands of people all over the world lost their lives
because of natural disasters such as earthquakes in the
Solomon Islands, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, tornados
of Sandy, Ingrid and Usagi, floods in Indonesia, Argentina,
China and Saudi Arabia which had occurred in different
areas.
The loss of lives because of natural disasters were too
little compared to the deaths occurred as a result of suicides,
bomb attacks, internal conflicts or terror witnessed in
Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Indonesia,
Burma, Somali, Mali and Pakistan. The Assad regime slaughtered
1500 civilian people including women and children
by using chemical weapons. This systematic slaughter
took place in our minds. Since the beginnings of the
demonstrations started in 2011 in Syria, which had been
ruled by the Baas Party since 1963, 150.000 people have
been killed.
We see that the world is giving closer attention to the
Caspian Region and the countries of the region continue
to develop while the bloody incidents in Middle East and
different parts of the world continue as well. When the
economic data of 2013 was analyzed, we see that the Gross
Domestic Product increased to $18.670 in Russia, and the
rate of unemployment remained 5.5 percent in this
country with a population of 142 million people. We also
observe that GDP increased to $9.394 in Turkmenistan
with a population of 5.7 million and increased to $14.750 in
Kazakhstan with a population of 16.8 million, while the
unemployment rate remained 5.3 percent.
www.hazarworld.com DECEMBER 2013 ISSUE 13 33