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Sezin Öney, originally from Turkey, is based in Budapest and Istanbul. She her journalism career as a foreign news reporter in 1999 and she turned into political analysis as a columnist since 2007. Her interest in her main academic subject area of populism was sparked almost decade ago; and now she focuses specifically on populist leadership, and populism in Turkey and Hungary. She studied international relations, nationalism, international law, Jewish history, comparative politics and discourse analysis across Europe.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Picks A Very Strange Fight With Canada
This is one really strange fight.
We are living in the "Age of Sanctions", that's for sure.
But a sanction fight between Saudi Arabia and Canada? That is really bizarre. The saddest part of it all is that such sporadic political explosions really do affect peoples' lives.
Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland sent out a tweet addressing the case of Samar Badawi, a women’s rights activist honored by the Obama Administration as a “woman of courage". Her brother, Raif, a blogger, has been imprisoned since 2012, after chastising the Saudi monarchy. Freeland just "tweeted":
“Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.”
The Canadian Foreign Ministry followed up with a tweet that called for the release of “all peaceful #humanrights activists” held by the Gulf monarchy.
The Canadian Embassy in Riyadh also tweeted the message in Arabic.
And the retaliation came:
Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian Ambassador, recalled its own envoy, froze all new trade and investment, suspended flights by the state airline to Toronto, and ordered thousands of Saudi students to leave Canada and get their education in other countries.
The Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry also "tweeted":
“The Canadian position is an overt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia and is in contravention of the most basic international norms and all the charters governing relations between States.” Further, it issued a warning: “Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in the Canadian domestic affairs.”
In the end, almost 17 thousand Saudi students' lives will be affected and also those of who are there for health reasons. Yes, health ...
Over some tweets ...
