Global political pallette: Highlights of outgoing year 2021

Exactly a year ago, the whole world was waiting for the New Year 2021. Many hoped that with its outset, the coronavirus pandemic would end, and everyone would return to normal life. But, alas, this did not happen. Now the same expectations are associated with the upcoming year 2022.

Report is by presenting to the readers' attention an overview of the most memorable events that took place in the world in the outgoing year 2021.

Trump, ‘Come back’! Or not

Things didn’t go smoothly in the beginning of the year in the US. In the early days of January, a crowd of protesters who supported the attempts of the 45th US President Donald Trump to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election broke into the US Capitol. The riots, as the world’s leading media said, were sparked by Trump’s comments at the rally immediately preceding the event. The assault led to the evacuation and closure of the Capitol building, killing four people in the incident. Trump called the protesters ‘great patriots’ and told them to ‘go home in peace.’ Later that evening, the crowd was dispersed. The electoral college results confirmation process resumed and ended the next morning, confirming the victory of Democrat Joe Biden. Under pressure from his administration, Trump agreed to a peaceful transfer of power.

New strains - new bans

No matter how much the world wanted to get rid of the headache called ‘coronavirus,’ the pandemic in 2021 continued to surprise the population of the Earth. The emergence of new strains has forced the countries of the world to again tighten measures in the fight against the pandemic. One of the most virulent strains of the coronavirus, delta, was first discovered in India. That is why it was called Indian for a long time, until the World Health Organization decided to abandon georeferencing in the names of viruses. In mid-July, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the delta variant had been found in 111 countries and territories.

On November 26, the WHO working group on the evolution of viruses identified the new strain of the coronavirus as ‘variant of concern’ (VOC) and assigned it its own letter name – ‘omicron.’ According to the WHO, as of December 21, 2021, the omicron strain was found in 106 countries. The organization emphasizes that the overall risk associated with the omicron variant of concern remains very high. Fortunately, this strain has not yet been found in Azerbaijan.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics and UEFA EURO 2020 this year

One of the positive moments of the outgoing year was the holding of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which was scheduled for 2020, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. These were the first Olympic Games to be rescheduled rather than canceled due to extraordinary circumstances, the first games in history to take place in an odd year, and the first in stadiums without spectators. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were attended by 205 national olympic committees, as well as the International Olympic Committee’s Refugee Olympic Team.

This year, the European Football Championship was also held, originally planned for 2020, but due to the pandemic, it took place a year later, from June 11 to July 11, 2021. It was the first European football championship to be postponed due to extraordinary circumstances. Its peculiarity was that for the first time it was held not on the territory of one or two neighboring countries, but on 11 stadiums in 11 cities of 10 states.

As a result, Azerbaijan also took part in this sporting event; four championship matches were held at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

Climate conference

Another event postponed for a year was ‘COP26’ - 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled for November 2020, but held in Glasgow only a year later - October 31 - November 12, 2021. As part of the climate agreement, the delegations of the participating countries reaffirmed the long-term global goal of continuing efforts ‘to limit temperature increases to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels.’ Several agreements made on the sidelines of the conference are also aimed at reducing methane emissions by 30%, deforestation and phasing out coal use.

From Taliban to Taliban: history repeats itself

On August 15, the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital of Kabul, ending the secular power even before the complete withdrawal of the NATO contingent. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other dignitaries fled the country. After the capture of Kabul, the US and a number of other countries began to actively evacuate their citizens, as well as some Afghans. NATO troops carried out the evacuation of citizens, and the Azerbaijani military as part of the alliance contingent were among the last who left Afghanistan.

The Taliban formed an interim government, dismantled the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and replaced it with an Islamic morality police. Women in Afghanistan held demonstrations on several occasions in several cities in Afghanistan calling on the Taliban to respect their rights and ensure their representation in government and local authorities.

The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis and poverty. According to the WHO, at least 1 million children in Afghanistan under the age of five could die of malnutrition if they are not immediately helped.

‘Renewed’ Germany - Merkel era becoming history

Back on November 22, 2005, the Bundestag elected Angela Merkel the first woman chancellor in German history. In the elections on September 26, 2021, she no longer ran for the first time after 16 years of ruling the German government. In this country, traditionally, the leader of the strongest party in the coalition becomes the head of government; he or she is elected by parliament by the majority of votes.

According to the results of the September parliamentary elections, the voters of the Federal Republic of Germany determined the members of the 20th Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) received the most votes (25.7%). The second place with 24.1% of the votes was taken by the bloc of parties the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU). As a result, Olaf Scholz became the ninth chancellor in the history of Germany, the fourth social democrat in this post and the head of the first German government, consisting of social democrats, liberals and ‘greens.’

Saakashvili's Hunger Games

After leaving Georgia in 2013 and becoming a statesman in Ukraine, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili decided to return to Georgia in the spring of 2021 before the local elections, but there were some surprises for him. The police detained him on the basis of sentences passed in absentia, which caused protests by his supporters.

In protest, the ex-president went on a hunger strike that lasted 50 days. As a result, he ended up in intensive care, but agreed to terminate the strike only after his request to be transferred from the prison to a regular clinic was fulfilled.

The local elections, which the ex-president of Georgia was so eager for, ended in victory of the ruling Georgian Dream party in 19 out of 20 municipalities. The candidate from the opposition United National Movement party Giorgi Kharchilava won only in Tsalenjikha municipality in the west of the country.

Erdogan delivered on his promise

Autumn 2021 has been challenging for the Turkish economy. The Turkish lira continued to fall against the dollar, breaking new records. The reason for this, according to many economists, was the continued low discount rate of the Central Bank, by which the government hopes to support the economic growth and export potential of the country. It led to the revitalization of the opposition parties, which called for early elections and rallies.

President Erdogan considers the situation with the Turkish economy as stable and calls not to panic. In addition, he addressed international investors, stating that they can and should trust Turkey's potential. The country's leader presented a series of measures that he said would ease the burden of weakening the currency for the Turks and provide an incentive to keep their savings in lira rather than dollars. In particular, Erdogan promised that the government would pay the difference between the amount of savings in lira and equivalent dollar deposits. After these words, the Turkish lira exchange rate immediately rose by 25% to 11 lira per dollar.

Nature has its own laws

Environmental disasters continued to worry the planet this year as well. Fires and floods claimed the lives of thousands of people. A series of floods began on 12 July 2021 after heavy rains caused by cyclone Bernd and spread to many countries in Europe. The main damage was done to Germany. The flood has been named the largest in 100 years. At least 240 people died, with 196 in Germany, 42 in Belgium, 1 in Italy, 1 in Austria, 2 in Romania, dozens are missing.

Fraternal Turkey became a victim of large-scale forest fires that occurred in the south of the country from July to August 2021. The fires began in late July and affected 30 provinces. They led to the death of 10 people, 864 were injured. The Turkish authorities and some social media users have admitted that the fires may be the work of arsonists. Authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a banned organization in Turkey, of arson. In 2019, supporters of the PKK already claimed responsibility for organizing 27 arson attacks between July 11 and August 24 in the western, northwestern and southern provinces of Turkey.