Report: Major global events in 2016

Baku. 29 December. REPORT.AZ/ The passing year 2016 was full of various events that had a great influence on global geopolitics and the economy. Report has prepared a compilation of these events.

One of the most important and perhaps unexpected event was a referendum on United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, so-called Brexit, as it is dubbed by Western media.

Referendum resulted in 51.9% of voters voting in favour of leaving the European Union, on a national turnout of 72%. 48,1% of population voted against leaving EU.

Russian political analyst Pavel Klachkov believes that there is a fierce struggle around the UK exitfrom the EU procedure, which is both political and informational-psychological.

"We see that those forces in British society and the establishment - conservatives who insisted that Britain remained in the Union, do not give up.They are making some efforts in the framework of their powers, including the rise in the British Parliament any issues in order to slow down the exit process", said P. Klachkov.

According to him, the trend goes to the fact that Britain will exit from the EU anyway:"It's inevitable. Perhaps the EU will collapse and people start to leave Europe. The world is reformatting and completely different world order is coming."

Another milestone for the global geopolitical event of the year, was Presidential elections in the US on November 8, which will essentially determine the main directions of foreign policy of States for at least next 4 years.

Republican candidate - Donald Trump won elections, gaining the majority of votes of the Electoral College.These elections were a complete surprise - Trump won contrary to the forecasts of most American experts and the media, who predicted the victory of Democratic candidate - former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

At the same time, Azerbaijani expert Tofig Abbasov said that Trump's victory was expected. "Why? Because the geopolitical situation that prevailed at present, in many aspects and features of the situation repeated late 70's of the last century.And if the Democrats, led by Jimmy Carter, assuming a series of failures at the external borders, seriously shaken the US position at the international level. American voters have not forgiven the series of failures of democracy and Ronald Reagan won the elections who promised more coherent policy, the solution of social and economic turmoil", T. Abbasov said.

According to him, Trump in some way repeats the style of his predecessor. T. Abbasov expressed the view that during the presidency of Trump, US foreign policy will be more agile, thus avoiding the obvious failures and offset some of the costs that were the result of blunders of the Obama's administration.

"If in the context of positive changes, he also achieves a removal of tension from the hard confrontation trends with Russia, Iran, Cuba and other countries, this would lead to a detente, which has long arises in the world", added the analyst.

Terrorist acts this year, unfortunately, repeatedly shook the world in different parts.Conflicts in Iraq and Syria are still ongoing, where there is a conflict of interests in different countries , including the neighboring. And flashes of war reach one degree or another distant countries, even in Europe.

For example in January as a result of militant attacks on local high school killed 26 people in Pakistan, in June 2016, 45 people were killed as a result of suicide attacks at the airport in Istanbul, or earlier in the Istanbul in January at the Sultanahmet Square, where 10 people killed in blast, including tourists from Germany and Norway, or a double attack in Baghdad, which became the cause of death of 292 people.

During the year, the terrorist attacks also took place in EU - in the Bastille Day terrorist hit a crowd of people at Christmas market by truck in Berlin, as a result 12 people were killed.

Orientalist Igor Pankratenko believes that in 2017 a similar trend of increasing number of terrorist attacks will continue.

And it is not connected with the activity of Islamic State, in my opinion, there is often franchise, and sometimes - assigning them for propaganda purposes what others have done but to the fact that the prevailing international approach to this problem is flawed. Terrorism today - the weapon of the poor, deprived of hope and prospects who do not see any other life than war", said the expert. In the context of the Middle East region and the South Caucasus, another event shocked the public, was Turkish coup attempt, which occurred on the night of 15 to 16 July, when a part of the Turkish military attempted a coup in the country. However, thanks to the support of the people of power remained with the legitimate President and the Government of Turkey. The Turkish government has accused Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) headed by Fethullah Gülen.

Turkologist Elkhan Şahinoğlu considers that the coup attempt took place with the direct support of Gülenist forces in Turkish army.

"The results of the coup are still eliminated, because a large number of people were arrested. Echoes of the coup in Turkey will be heard for a long time", the analyst believes.

According to him, over the years Gülen structure was implemented in the state of Turkey, strengthening the institutions in an attempt to weaken the country from within: "However Turkey has the other problem, in particular, the fight against terrorism.We see that explosions taking place in Turkey every day. FETÖ tries to use external forces to destabilize Turkey. I think that Turkey, as a strong state will be able to neutralize the threat represented by the movement and achieve success in the fight against terrorism", stressed E. Şahinoğlu.

The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved for more than 25 years. And this year the neglected crises erupted from April 1 to 4 on the contact line, known as the April war.

As a result of this war, Azerbaijani Armed Forces fully exempted heights around Talish village, also under the control of Azerbaijani forces crossed height of strategic height Leletepe in direction of Fuzuli region.The ministry also reported that as a result, more than 200 people killed, over 500 wounded in Armenian side.

Conflict resolution specialist Evgeny Mikhaylov believes that, in his opinion, results of the April clashes showed that Azerbaijan is ready to free its territories.

"The Army of the Republic received the latest weapons and able to use it", said E. Mikhaylov.

In his opinion, Russia will try to prevent the escalation of conflict in the future.

"The efforts of our country did not allow the April events to turn into large-scale bloodshed. I hope that in 2017, the occupied regions of Azerbaijan will be returned by peaceful means", the expert added.

The other important and significant event for Azerbaijan this year you can be seen Pastoral visit of Pope Francis to Azerbaijan. Previous Pope John Paul II's visit to Baku took place 14 years ago - in 2002. During the visit on October 2, Pope met with a number of Azerbaijani officials, as well as with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The Head of the Holy See also made a Mass at a local Catholic church in Baku.

Political scientist Ilgar Velizade expressed the opinion that the Pope's visit to Baku has demonstrated the existence of interests between Azerbaijan and the Holy See in various fields, which today form the agenda of relations between the two countries.

"This visit has shown that the efforts that have been recently exerted by Azerbaijan, for the implementation of humanitarian projects in collaboration with the Vatican bring real and concrete results.

As for the prospects of cooperation, it is important to note that the visit was the basis for the development of relations between Azerbaijan and the Vatican on the basis of already-established projects. Good relations between Baku and the Vatican would allow, at a minimum, change the position of the Holy See towards the impartiality in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement", said the expert.