Greater Middle East

Syria: jihadis target Armenians

Some 2,000 Armenians from the town of Kessab in northern Syria have taken refuge in the port city of Latakia following the occupation of their town by jihadist forces.

Europe

Crimean Tatars protest Russian occupation

Crimean Tatars held protests in the peninsula, calling for a boycott of the referendum on union with Russia and demanding that Russian troops return to barracks.

Greater Middle East

Turkey: street clashes over cyber freedom

Riot police in Istanbul used water cannons against demonstrators in the latest protest against a bill that would increase government control over the Internet.

Greater Middle East

Syria: NATO intervention —against al-Qaeda?

A Turkish military incursion against Qaedist rebels in Syria comes amid claims that al-Qaeda affiliates have seized the country's oilfields and are planning attacks on the West.

Europe

Burgos and Gezi Square: contradiction?

Protesters in Burgos, Spain, defeated a redevelopment plan that included replacing traffic lanes with greenways—a contrast to the struggle to save Istanbul's Gezi Park. 

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.

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.”