The earthquake that caused more than 45 thousand victims in Turkey and Syria at the beginning of the year marked the beginning of 2023, at the end of which the world is witnessing a terrible conflict between Israel and Hamas, where civilians in Gaza suffer the most.
The year began with China's announcement that it had defeated the coronavirus pandemic.
The earthquake that struck Turkey and eastern Syria in February killed more than 45 people and left almost 1.2 million citizens homeless.
The war between Ukraine and Russia continued with the attacks of the Wagner paramilitary formation in Bahmut, while the Nord Stream gas pipeline was also damaged in the clashes during the Russian aggression.
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin attempted a rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, but it ended within a day. Prigozhin died two months later in a plane crash.
Due to the war in Ukraine, Sweden and Finland have decided to end their military neutrality and have applied for NATO membership.
Finland became a member, while Sweden ends 2023 without the approval of the parliaments of Turkey and Hungary to join the Alliance, despite the consent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who took the presidential mandate again in May.
April brought changes to Montenegro's neighbors as the region's longest-serving politician, Milo Djukanovic, lost the presidential election to Jakov Milatovic.
In September, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched "local counter-terrorist operations" in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to restore constitutional order by disarming Armenian military formations.
Tensions in the South Caucasus surrounding the breakaway enclave, recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan, culminated in Azerbaijani troops being sent to launch an attack on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Baku returned sovereignty over that area, but this resulted in the emigration of nearly 100 Armenians, that is, almost the entire Armenian population of the enclave left that territory.
In October, Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on a music festival in Israel, killing more than 360 people out of the 1200 killed during the Hamas incursion.
Over 21100 Palestinians were killed in Israel's retaliation against Gaza, while international organizations state that 2.3 million Palestinians are on the brink of disaster while 90 percent have fled their homes and have limited access to food and medicine. /Telegraph/
