World roundup: May 19 2025

Stories from Israel-Palestine, Vietnam, El Salvador, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 19, 1919: The Turkish War of Independence begins with the deployment of General Mustafa Kemal (the future “Atatürk”) to Samsun ostensibly as Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI’s new inspector-general. In reality Kemal had wrangled that appointment for himself with the intention of organizing a resistance to the Allies’ plan to carve up post-World War I Anatolia. His successful war (or wars, by some historians’ reckonings) against the various occupying powers in Anatolia led to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which abrogated that earlier plan and birthed the modern Republic of Turkey.

May 19, 1961: The Soviet Union’s Venera 1 probe, also sometimes called “Sputnik 8” in the West, becomes the first man-made object to complete an interplanetary voyage when it passes by Venus. Unfortunately from a scientific perspective, the probe lost contact with Earth about a week after its February 19 launch so it was unable to transmit any data it might have gathered during the flyby.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra announced on Saturday that he’s set a ten day deadline for (to borrow Reuters’ phraseology) “small armed groups that have yet to merge with the security apparatus” to complete that merger or else. I don’t meant to be flippant there but he really doesn’t appear to have outlined any consequences for failure to comply. Maybe the punishment will be another pogrom against the community or communities from which those groups are drawn.