Greater Middle East

Regional powers exploit Bahrain protests

Shi'ite protesters have repeatedly mobilized in Bahrain to demand the release of imprisoned dissident cleric Sheikh Ali Salman—ignored by the foreign media except in Iran.

Greater Middle East

Erdogan exploits Istanbul terror —of course

Prime Minister Erdogan exploited the ISIS terror attack in Istanbul for illogical propaganda against the PKK—as his military presses its bloody counterinsurgency in Turkey's east.

Greater Middle East

Yemen: use of cluster bombs may be war crime

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the use of cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition against residential neighborhoods in Yemen may amount to a war crime.

Greater Middle East

Health concerns for imprisoned Saudi blogger

Imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi—winner of the EU's Sakharov Prize—has suffered fainting spells and deteriorating health owing to his lengthy hunger strike.

Greater Middle East

Kurds caught in Russo-Turkish game… again

Amid counterinsurgency against Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin DemirtaÅŸ is received in Moscow—now executing a grisly counterinsurgency in Syria.

Greater Middle East

Turkish pot calls Russian kettle black…

Turkey's prime minister accuses Russia of "ethnic cleansing" with air-strikes targeting Turkmen in Syria—as Ankara continues to attack Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq alike.

Greater Middle East

Syria: civil wars in the civil war

A growing split between secular and Islamist elements of the FSA is unfortunately mirrored by a breach between Kurds and Ankara-backed Arab and Turkmen forces.