World roundup: March 21 2025

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 21, 1814: At the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, Napoleon is successfully able to disengage his army and retreat in order in the face of a much larger Austrian-Russian-Bavarian opponent. Though a tactical success for the French army, strategically the retreat allowed the Allies to move closer to Paris, and that’s a big part of the reason why this battle was the second-to-last engagement Napoleon fought before the Allies forced him into his first exile.

March 21, 1935: Iranian ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi’s request that the rest of the world call his country “Iran” instead of “Persia” officially takes effect.

MIDDLE EAST

TURKEY

At Foreign Affairs, Gönül Tol argues that the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu marks a transition for Turkey’s political structure:

The scheme to take Imamoglu out of play was calculated and thorough. On Tuesday, Imamoglu’s alma mater, Istanbul University, revoked his diploma—by law, Turkish presidential candidates must possess university degrees—citing alleged violations of Higher Education Board regulations. The next day, Imamoglu was arrested on charges of corruption and terrorism. These court rulings not only derail his presidential ambitions but also oust him from his position as mayor of Turkey’s largest city and economic powerhouse.

For years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been removing checks on his own power and manipulating state institutions to give his party electoral advantages, but until now, the Turkish opposition has been able to field viable candidates to contest his rule. In Imamoglu, opposition groups thought they had found a candidate who could finally defeat Erdogan in a head-to-head race. By forcing the Istanbul mayor out of politics, the government has crossed the line that separates Turkey’s competitive authoritarian system from a full, Russian-style autocracy in which the president handpicks his opponents and elections are purely for show.

As she notes, Erdoğan clearly thinks the time is right to make a power grab like this and he may be right—domestically it’s unclear who or what is left to stop him, and any Western criticism is likely to be muted given Turkey’s importance to a NATO that suddenly finds itself facing major questions about America’s commitment to the alliance. But there are risks—İmamoğlu is popular, the political turmoil is already taking an economic toll, and this overt authoritarian turn has raised serious concerns for Turkey’s Kurdish population just as Erdoğan is trying to negotiate the dissolution of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.