Hello, and welcome to the December 2017 issue of Asfar’s e-journal!
I would like to apologise to our regular readers for such a long wait since the last issue of our journal was published. It has been a hectic time for myself transitioning to a PhD (with all of the added mishaps that come with that) and our editorial team and contributors have been moving on to new university courses and jobs. But here we are, we are back stronger than ever!
So much has happened since the last issue. I would like to focus particularly on the issue in the Gulf: Qatar has been alienated by the rest of the GCC states, which regular contributor Rich Quinlan writes about his article for this issue. The Gulf crisis is complicated, historic, and largely an argument of attrition, with major players in the region competing to gain influence and to grandstand against each other. Who knows when, or how it will end.
In this issue we have an article written by one of our editors, Rebecca Stead, who, in conversation with artist Greta Scharnweber, gives us an insight into the Palestinian diaspora scattered around the world. We have an extract of a speech given by Steven Aiello at an EU conference about the next steps in the Israel-Palestine debate, an article by Ferhat Polat about why the Turkey-EU relationship needs to be reset, a contribution about a West Bank village, and a well researched article by Sheniz Tan about child marriage in the Caucasus.
I would like to wish all of our readers, editors, and our CEO Sheniz Tan a happy Christmas and festive season, and a peaceful New Year.
I hope you enjoyed reading the December 2017 issue of our e-journal, and as ever, if you have any ideas for the next edition or would like to know more about Asfar you can email me at: joew@asfar.org.uk
Best wishes,
Joe Worthington
Senior Editor