Turkey Live Coverage (20 June): 26 Die in Military Clashes with PKK

1700 GMT: During a recent speech at the Washington Institute, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Israel needs to come to terms with Turkey's superpower status in the Middle East.

1615 GMT: BDP's deputy Altan Tan underlined the equally important matter of halting military operations and responded to calls for PKK to lay down its arms. Altan said:

Every time, they ar calling on PKK lay down its arms. OK, let it do so but how, to whom and where shall it leave its arms? 

1520 GMT: Barzani spoke to Turkey's TRT: 

The period of armed struggle is over now. This gives harm to Kurdish people. Our position is clear and obvious. We are asking our brothers in Turkey to continue their activities in the Parliament. The recent steps taken are very important ones for Turkey. I am condemning this incident. 

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- #RememberIran, Arrest of Labour Activists, House of Cinema Closed (Arseh Sevom)

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Green Movement: Three Years On

This week marked the third anniversary of the demonstrations following Iran’s flawed 2009 Presidential elections, which brought the Green Movement to the world stage. Millions of Iranian citizens took to the streets of Tehran and other major Iranian cities to protest what they saw as a rigged election. Many had a simple question to ask through their peaceful demonstrations, “Where is my vote?” The rest is history.

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Turkey Analysis: An Opposition MP Gives Prime Minister Erdogan An Edge on the Kurdish Issue

Last week, Leyla Zana, an MP of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peace and Democracy Party, expressed hope in an interview that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would solve the Kurdish issue:

There is a solid fact here. Let’s say this openly and accept this fact. If he wanted, the strongest can solve this [Kurdish] issue. Who is the strongest one? It’s the government and its head, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The person who is the head of the strongest government in [our] history is able to show the willpower and has the power to sort out this issue. I believe that he will be able to solve this issue. I have never lost my faith in him solving this issue. And I don’t want to lose my faith in him. If I had lost [my faith], I wouldn’t be here.

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Turkey Live Coverage (11 June): The Government's Carrot-and-Stick on the Kurdish Issue

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Regime on Its Last Legs?

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2000 GMT: It is claimed by Today's Zaman that the Obama administration will anoounce seven countries including Turkey that will be exempt from sanctions since they have significantly cut oil purchases from Iran. 

1835 GMT: Turkish deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc said that no revision is planned to abolish specially authorized prosecutors and courts as part of a government plan to overhaul the Turkish criminal code. 

1505 GMT: It is claimed that the arrestment of BDP members including Van Mayor Bekir Kaya had been known in advance. According to this assertion, some prison cells had been emptied and readied even before they were detained. 

1500 GMT: Firat News Agency known by its close ties with the outlawed PKK, says 'KCK Executive Council member Cemil Bayık' evaluated the meeting between AKP and CHP as 'the usual policy of “trying to strain Kurds and making them surrender”'.

Besides, in response to the government's new initiative, KCK political committee reportedly declared that "any discussion or decision taken on the struggle of freedom without the will of our movement and our people is void!"

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Turkey Live Coverage (7 June): Politics and Pressure over the Kurdistan Talks

1740 GMT: Following the Global Counter- Terrorism Forum, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said regarding Turkey's fight against PKK: 

With respect to our fight against terrorism, we work very closely together, and in fact, we are learning every week how we can be more closely knit together to cooperate and to support Turkey’s fight against the PKK. I will not discuss potential arms transfers that have not been formally notified to Congress, but I will say that the extensive assistance that we currently provide is going to intensify through closer cooperation and planning, and both the foreign minister and I are committed to making sure both of our governments are as focused and coordinated as we can be going against those that threaten Turkey and Turkish lives.

 I think I’ve said it on every trip to Turkey – the United States stands strongly with Turkey in your fight against the PKK whose long campaign of violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives. 

1535 GMT: Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized the silence of countries who haven’t spoken out against the Assad regime so far and underlined, once again, the significance of an international consensus. He said:

From Turkey’s perspective, there is instability on the border between Turkey and Syria. The Assad regime does not create stability: On the contrary, Assad’s methods destroy the stability in the region. 

The international community should act unanimously to stop the oppression and atrocities.

Turkey will continue its inclusive activities to strengthen the opposition in Syria.

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Turkey Live Coverage (31 May): Erdogan "World Cannot Remain Silent About Syria"

1900 GMT: Danish EU affairs minister Nicolai Wammen says the biggest problem of Turkey's EU accession process is the matter of the freedom of press.

1830 GMT: Addressing to the nation, Prime Minister Erdogan said:

Due to the recent bitter incident happened in Uludere, our security forces, institutions and government are being targeted alltogether. Even not these; but our brotherhood is being targeted through the exploitation of Uludere and of the pain. 

Unfortunately, the opposition also shows such a problematised approach at this matter. Unfortunately, some media organisations don't and even can't take side with the nation in such an important, national and essential matter like terror.

Those who do not trust in the institutions, politicians and administrators of this country go and carry this exploitation policy to its peak by believing in those intentional publicaitons of foreign countries. Be sure of this, my dear citizens... The state does its part and will do so following the Uludere incident.

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Turkey Live Coverage (28 May): Erdogan's Dilemma on the Kurdish Problem

1845 GMT: European Parliament President Martin Schulz held meetings with President Abdullah Gul and government and opposition leaders. Schulz said that it was no secret that Turkey's accession process would be a long and difficult one.

As for the Kurdish problem and the case of Leyla Zana, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Schulz said that there had been no real progress on the Kurdish issue and that the European Parliament would follow her case very closely.

1720 PKK has opened harassing fire to Turkish soldiers in the eastern province of Kars. One soldier was wounded and taken to the nearest hospital by a helicopter.

1530 GMT: In the middle of and exchange of fire in Aleppo, a Turkish citizen, Aliye Tas (63), was killed. 

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Iran Snap Analysis: Propaganda, Negotiations, and the Economic Ties That Bind

Iran's media outlets and spokesmen are putting out the message that it is the US and Europe, not the Islamic Republic, who are economically weak --- this, rather than a genuine desire for agreement, is why Washington and allies are pursuing the nuclear talks. However, the argument is propaganda, not assessment, leaving the important question whether Tehran's officials actually believe the illusions of their rhetoric.

If they do, then they may be in for an awakening as they go to Moscow on 18-19 June. Given the economic difficulties within Iran, which cannot be masked by rose-coloured proclamations, and the European Union's cut-off of Iranian oil imports from 1 July, US and European governments believe they have the upper hand. Having planned for alternative supplies to cover the drop in oil taken from Tehran, they can afford to play the game long. It is far from certain that the Islamic Republic can do so.

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Yemen Interview: Nadia Al-Sakkaf "The Revolution Doesn't Relate to Daily Lives"

The Media Line's Felice Friedson posts this interview, by phone, with Nadia Al-Sakkaf, the editor-in-chief of The Yemen Times:

TML: Nadia, did Yemen go through a revolution?

AL-SAKKAF: It was a semi-revolution for Yemeni women in terms of being able to participate strongly in the public sphere in a way they had never done before. For certain women, it was the first time ever they had a voice which they could display publicly and feel safe and accepted by the male-dominated society. But other than that, I don’t think it had any sustainable or institutional element so I wouldn’t say it was a revolution, I would say it was a phenomenon that happened for a purpose and doesn’t have any long-term consequences.
 

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From Libya to Bahrain to Syria: Anthony Shadid on Conflict, Protest, and Humanity

Anthony Shadid has died on assignment for The New York Times in eastern Syria.

Shadid was one of the international correspondents whom we most admired. In November, we posted a report from his previous undercover travels in Syria, "The Spectre of Civil War in Homs". In September, he had analysed, "Ankara Offers Itself as the Answer in the Middle East". And in October, he had interviewed people in Sitra in Bahrain --- including an EA correspondent to offer their thoughts, "We Are Still Here. We Are Demanding. We Exist."

This was Shadid's last despatch, "Libya Struggles to Curb Militias as Chaos Grows", published by The Times on 8 February:

As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya’s revolution these days — a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.

The woman was soon freed. The base was theirs. And the plunder began.

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