Greater Middle East
Turkey: protest movement gets another martyr
A young protester was killed by police in Antakya, as demonstrations re-mobilize across Turkey—this time in response to a new highway development in Ankara.
Tag: Turkey
Greater Middle East
Turkey: police fire on Kurdish protesters
Turkish security forces killed one and wounded nine as Kurdish villagers armed with improvised petrol bombs attacked a construction site of the gendarmerie in Diyarbakir.
Greater Middle East
US arms reach Syrian rebels?
The Free Syrian Army boasts of receiving new weapons shipments that could “change” the course of the war—amid revelations that the US has been arming them secretly for a year.
Iran
US, Iranian forces converge on Syria
Some 5,000 US troops are in Jordan to participate in the multi-national Eager Lion exercises—just as Iran is sending 4,000 Revolutionary Guards to support Syria's Bashar Assad.
Greater Middle East
Turkish unions appeal for solidarity
Turkey’s DISK labor federation is calling for international solidarity as Prime Minister Erdogan declared its general strike in support of the protest movement “illegal.”
Greater Middle East
Turkish lawyers join ongoing protests
Thousands of Turkish lawyers joined the ongoing protests in Ankara and Istanbul by marching out of courthouses in black robes after lefal observers were assaulted by police.
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.
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.
Palestine
Jerusalem: troops fire on Palestinian protesters
As Obama left Israel for Jordan, two Palestinian youths were critically wounded when Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets on protesters at Anata north of Jerusalem.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish wild card in Syria conflict
Kurdish militias in Syria—some linked to the PKK—are battling jihadist rebels, but it is uncertain if they necessarily back the Damascus regime.
Greater Middle East
Armed left behind Ankara embassy blast?
The suicide blast at the US embassy in Ankara was allegedly carried out by the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C), an armed left faction.