Middle East Today: Turkey --- Ruling Party Says No Early Elections

Rally in Istanbul's Taksim Square today

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Libya: 11 Killed in Benghazi Clashes

At least 11 people were killed and 35 wounded in clashes on Saturday between protesters and a Libyan militia, operating with Ministry of Defence approval, in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Residents said dozens of protesters rallied outside the headquarters of the Government-backed Libya Shield brigade, demanding the disbanding of militias who have yet to disarm fter the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in October.

The Libya Shield brigade is made up of former insurgent who say they are aligned with the Ministry of Defence. A Government spokesman said special forces from the Libyan military had arrived at the scene.

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Turkey Special: A 4-Point Guide to the Protests

Protesters on the Bosphorus Bridge en route to Istanbul's Taksim Square

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4. SO CAN THE PROTESTS SUCCEED?

This weekend's events should be seen not just as an immediate rising which will succeed or fail, but as the start of a series of events that will change the Turkish political landscape.

In other words, the contest --- which will take in not only social issues like Gezi Park and the Bosphorus Bridge, but the Government's economic approach and perceived favoritism and the broad political issues like the Constitution and Erdogan's power --- is one for the longer-term.

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Turkey Opinion: Democracy v. "Erdogan's Personal Lust for Power" (Akyol)

All such accomplishments of the ruling AKP have recently been overshadowed — not by the “hidden Islamist agenda” that the secularists feared, but a more mundane problem: lust for power, especially Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s personal lust for power.

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Turkey Analysis: Did US Intelligence Lead to Deaths of 34 Civilians (and Better Relations with Ankara)?

A Wall Street Journal investigation points to the role of US intelligence in the Uludere airstrikes

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The Wall Street Journal claims that the intelligence came from Washington. If this is true, we do not need to ask further about the reason for the Turkish Government's keeping of a secret. Both for general US-Turkish and for specific issues, such as co-operation over the Syrian issue, further enquiries into the Uludere incident would be inconvenient.

Could the deaths of 34 civilians have led to better relations between Ankara and Washington? After all, Turkey and the US are aligned in their policies towards Iraq's Maliki, Syria's Assad, Iran's Ahmadinejad, and Iraqi Kurdistan's Barzani --- so perhaps "collateral damage" in this case has been turned into "collateral benefit".

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Morocco Analysis: Why Did the Moroccan Uprising Not Rise? (El Amrani)

Protest in Tétouan, 26 June 2011

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There are cautionary tales in the Arab uprisings, as Syria has shown: not every revolution can be as successful as Tunisia's, not every aftermath is rosy. And then there are also questions raised about those places where revolution did not take place. Was it averted because there is wise and popular government, or has some kind of social shock merely been postponed?

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protest Creep

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Activist Zainab Alkhawaja (@angryarabiya) stands in front of police after security forces attacked a protest in A'ali in Bahrain

Bahrain 1st-Hand: How Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Defied the Police...And Escaped Arrest

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2114 GMT: After losing an appeal, it appears as though Libya's former Prime Minister, Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, will be extradited from Tunisia to Libya to face trial. However, the move could still be blocked when the new government takes over in Tunisia:

It was unclear whether Tunisia's incoming president, who is a former head of the country's best-known human rights group, would sign the order. Al-Mahmoudi's lawyers have also appealed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, asking them to grant him a status of political refuge.

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Turkey-Israel Feature: As a New Flotilla Prepares to Sail, Ankara and West Jerusalem Endure the Chill (Slavin)

Turkey and Israel are close to resolving their dispute over last year's flotilla fiasco, but the partnership that existed between them for more than a decade will almost certainly stay submerged.

As a new flotilla of ships prepared to set sail for Gaza Tuesday, Turkish and Israeli officials and analysts said that only a major breakthrough on Israeli-Palestinian peace could begin to revive a relationship that once featured joint military exercises and hordes of Israeli tourists visiting Istanbul. Even then, the officials said, they doubted that the warmth of the 1990s and the mid-2000s would resurface.

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Turkey Feature: Erdoğan's AKP Wins Third Term in Office (Zaman)

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to embrace the entire nation after a sweeping victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections and said his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will seek a broad-based consensus of opposition parties and civil society groups while drafting a new constitution.

The AK Party won a third consecutive term by securing a record-high vote of 50 percent in Sunday's polls. The biggest opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's Republican People's Party (CHP), won 25.9 percent.

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