Greater Middle East
Next: Turkish spring?
Istanbul police raided a protest camp in Taksim Gezi Park, slated to be bulldozed for a new shopping mall. Demonstrations continue, and have spread to Ankara.
Tag: Greater Middle East
Greater Middle East
‘Sunni cleansing’ in Syria?
Turkey sees in the battle for Qusayr a strategy to create an Alawite mini-state within Syria, purged of Sunni Muslims, to which the ruling elite can withdraw for a last stand.
Greater Middle East
Turkey to build wall on Syrian border
Turkey will build a 2.5-kilometer wall along the Cilvegözü post on the border with Syria, near where a twin bomb attack killed 51 and wounded more than 100 earlier this month.
Greater Middle East
Israeli air-strikes near Damascus
Israeli missiles struck a research center near Damascus, as massacres of Sunni families by pro-government militias are reported from Syria’s coastal Alawite stronghold.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: sweep of Black Bloc protesters
Egyptian “Black Bloc” protesters continue to clash with police as 22 of their comrades have been detained in a “terrorism” investigation.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish militia falls out with Free Syria Army
An alliance between the Free Syrian Army and the People’s Protection Committees (YPG), the country’s main Kurdish militia, broke down amid internecine clashes in Aleppo.
Greater Middle East
Has Syria crossed chemical ‘red line’?
Israel's claim that Syria has used chemical weapons comes as rebel militias have assumed positions near the line of control in the Golan Heights.
Greater Middle East
US pledges $100 million in aid to Syrian rebels
As the Friends of Syria summit opened in Istanbul, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced $100 million in new “non-lethal” aid to the Syrian opposition.
Greater Middle East
Syria: Alawite dissidents break with regime
Opposition activists from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect publicly broke ranks with the regime at a meeting in Cairo, and urged their fellow Alawites in the army to rebel.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: protesters press release of Gitmo detainees
Approximately 250 Yemeni demonstrators gathered in front of the US embassy in Sanna to demand the release of Yemeni detainees held at Guantánamo Bay.
Greater Middle East
Bahrain rights activists on hunger strike
Two Bahraini human rights activists have intensified their hunger strike and are refusing fluids, according to a report by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR).
Greater Middle East
UN announces probe into Syria chemical weapons
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced that the UN will initiate a probe into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria following an attack on a village near Aleppo.