Ethnic groups in Asia

Kazakhstan further loosened cultural ties with its former political masters in Moscow yesterday when a ban on speaking Russian in cabinet meetings took effect - despite many ministers favouring that language over their native Kazakh.

The U.S. actions in Syria are aimed at partitioning the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrov has said, accusing Washington of using the Kurdish forces to undermine Syria’s territorial integrity.

Turkey's foreign minister assailed the United States on Monday, claiming that American forces in Syria are intentionally stalling the fight against Islamic State militants as an excuse not to cut ties with Syrian Kurdish militiamen as Ankara has demanded.

Turkey has for years been embroiled in turmoil, which has only intensified after the failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016.

Antagonism between the country's Kemalists and Islamists has escalated into an all-out confrontation. Meanwhile, the ultranationalist party can be seen swinging between the two camps.

The launch of Ankara's military campaign against the Kurds in Syria - with Friday's assault on the enclave of Afrin - in combination with the Turkish foreign minister's recent threats to cancel the country's agreement with the European Union for the return of migrants if Brussels doesn't open its arms to Turkey, should cause concern.

How far can a desire to see a loved one take us? Laila Saleh was so desperate to see the granddaughters she helped raise that she didn't think twice about following the rest of her family out of northern Syria, despite being 110 years old.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorists made her a sex slave. She was not alone……there were hundreds of thousands of women who were kidnapped by the terrorists. Members of the terror outfit, reportedly, are still using them as sex slaves in Iraq and Syria.

Forty-two Syrian people, including 31 children, were found to have entered Turkey illegally and detained on Dec. 2.

The Turkish government is dissatisfied with the information provided by the United States with regards to the content, purpose, deadline and transparency of arms support provided by the Pentagon to the Syrian Kurds, according to assessments made in Ankara.

Turkey has extradited two Russian spies in exchange for two Crimean Tatar politicians jailed in Russia, daily Habertürk reported on Nov. 29.