ON November 1, the Turkish people went to the ballot box. Voting is mandatory in Turkey, so the turnout is always high. It was just above 84 percent this time. What the Turkish people voted for, however, was unclear.The victory, plainly, was of the AKP – the Justice and Development Party – of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It won just short of half of the votes, giving it 315 seats in the parliament of 550. The threshold for governance is 267, which the AKP was not able to attain in this June’s parliamentary election.

THE war in Syria took a significant change with the entry of Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin in his address to the UN General Assembly on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, questioned US hegemony and its uncalled for interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. Two days after, on the request of Syrian government, Russian air force began its targeted attack on ISIS.

FROM October 14-16, 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened a special conference of the Asian political parties with the specific agenda of the reestablishment of the ancient “Silk Road”. Apart from the large Chinese delegation, 66 parties from 32 countries of Asia participated in this conference including many heads of State/governments. From India four parties were invited – CPI(M), CPI, BJP and Congress. Specific invitations were addressed to the general secretaries of both the CPI(M) and the CPI.

ELAP 2015 (Encounter of the Progressive forces of Latin America) was organised in Quito, Ecuador from September 28-30, 2015. ELAP is organised by the Allianz de Pais, the ruling party of that country. 63 Communist, Left and progressive parties/movements participated in this conference along with our Party.The Communist Party of Cuba, Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), Communist Party of Chile, Sandinistas of Nicaragua, MAS of Bolivia, FMLN of El Salvador, PSUV of Venezuela are some of the prominent parties, which participated in the conference from within the continent.

THE confirmation by the Taliban, after some initial hesitation, that their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was no longer alive, brings to an end another interesting chapter in Afghanistan's recent history. The remnants of the Taliban leadership located in Pakistan had no alternative but to confirm the demise of their reclusive leader after the government in Kabul announced in the last week of July that it was certain that the former head of the Taliban government that ruled the country from 1997 to 2001, was no longer alive.