A Greek Orthodox Monastery, Aya Yorgi (St George), which is located on the biggest island of Princes' Islands chain in Istanbul, receives a substantial number of devout pilgrims every year - mainly on the feast of St. George (23rd April). Though at first sight, it seems to be a Christian space and a shrine, it is deemed to be a “shared sacred site” and an iconic symbol of multi religious coexistence in Turkey. It also needs to be emphasized that the vast majority of pilgrims consists of Muslim women. This paper describes the collective pilgrimage to Aya Yorgi and aims to contribute to the understandings of shared pilgrimages (with a participant observation) in the field.

In 1333, Pope John XXII wrote a letter to the Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, appointing a new archbishop of Beijing. In addition to the letter to the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, the Pope wrote several more letters. The recipients of those letters were Öz Beg Khan of the Kipchak Khanate, King Leo of Armenia, Archbishop Jacopo, all Mongolian monarchs and their people, and Rex Corum. Unlike all the other recipients, controversies still remain over the identity of this last person. There were people who considered Rex Corum to be the King of Goryeo. But the term referring to Goryeo during the Mongol Empire period was not Corea but Caoli. In addition, the Goryeo King was not a key Khan of the Mongols. In consideration of the historical context and the journey of the new archbishop, the most likely candidate for Rex Corum is the Chagatai Khan.

This article examines the conceptual implications of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) through a case research on the crisis of Libya. Although the R2P doctrine has been highly valued as an emerging norm to drive international community to protect civilians from mass atrocities, the doctrine has also opened the door to the point at issue. That is, even though lauded as a typical case of how R2P should be applied in general, the effectiveness of intervention in Libya has faced growing attacks as the country is sliding back into civil war following the withdrawal of NATO-led coalition forces. As the security situation worsened right after NATO withdrew, thus, many have questioned the wisdom and effectiveness of the external intervention within the new framework of R2P. Reflecting on these points at issue, this article aims to question the context in which the R2P doctrine was applied to the case of Libyan crisis so as to search for the limits and challenges of the intervention of NATO-led coalition forces. By exploring the drawbacks of this intervention, this article asserts that two core elements of the R2P framework - the responsibilities to prevent and rebuild - have been to some extent ignored with putting more emphasis on the responsibility to react. For reviving and sustaining the utility of R2P, within this context, the article argues that a critical approach to R2P should be urging diverse actors of the international community to go beyond an armed response to mass atrocity crimes through emphasizing and practicing the core values of international responsibilities not only to prevent mass killings by fully pursuing peaceful resolutions but also to highlight the post-conflict peacebuilding in Libya.