World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (February 12-14, 2011)

Last Saturday, The New York Times published an entitled 'Georgians Build Ties With Russian Caucasus'. It touches upon the opening of Russian-language First Caucasus News TV channel. Its target audience includes viewers north of its border, in the mountainous and restive Russian region known as the North Caucasus. A previous Russian-language channel, called First Caucasian, went off the air last year when its French satellite operator backed out of a deal, saying it had received a better offer from Russia's Gazprom Media Group. As the debut approached, the channel's general director promised repeatedly that Kanal PIK, as the channel is known, would not be used as a vehicle for anti-Russian propaganda.

Nevertheless, when the inaugural broadcast began, in the course of a question-and-answer session two hours and 40 minutes long, President Mikheil Saakashvili said the people of the North Caucasus were chafing under Moscow's rule -- and that a haven awaited them in Georgia. According to the author, Caucasian solidarity is an increasingly fashionable topic in Tbilisi, but this initiative drills straight into one of Moscow's greatest anxieties. The night before Kanal PIK's debut, a suicide bomber killed dozens at Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents from the North Caucasus. The Kremlin has been trying to stamp out resistance there since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Among few programs to survive from the channel's earlier iteration is a talk show hosted by Alla Dudayeva, widow of the Chechen rebel leader Dzhokar M. Dudayev.

The same news agency also reported that the Stuxnet software worm repeatedly sought to infect five industrial facilities in Iran over a 10-month period, and that could be a clue into how it might have infected the Iranian uranium enrichment complex at Natanz. The report, released Friday bySymantec, a computer security software firm, said there were three waves of attacks. Liam O Murchu, a security researcher at the firm, said his team was able to chart the path of the infection because of an unusual feature of the malware: Stuxnet recorded information on the location and type of each computer it infected. He also gave his explanation of how actually the worm chooses its 'victims'.

The Los Angeles Times published an article touching upon current unrest in the Middle Eastern region. It states that protesters from Morocco to Iran are setting aside the region's traditional religious and geopolitical divides to take on common culprits of corruption, police violence, political repression and vast gaps in wealth. According to the article, There were Saturday's clashes between demonstrators and police in Algeria, now referred to as #feb12 on Twitter, much as Egypt's uprising shall forever be known as #jan25. New popular protests are scheduled Monday in Bahrain (#feb14) and Iran (#25Bahman). Libya comes next on #feb17, followed by Algeria again on #feb19, Morocco #feb20, Cameroon #feb23 and Kuwait #mar8. Experts indicate that threat used by the political authorities in the Arab countries, threatening their people with the consequences of democracy, collapsed very quickly and now all fears are gone.

Another article published by the same press agency states that Egyptian army officials try to ease anxiety, reassuring citizens and allies that it will maintain stability and oversee a transfer to civilian authority. But analysts say the situation is volatile, and it's unclear if the army will ultimately allow free elections, transparency and civilian control. The author points out that people with a military background have ruled Egypt since 1952. The armed
forces are significant players in the economy. Israel has worked closely with Egypt's military to battle Islamic extremists, particularly in the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Despite the problems, Israeli officials believe they can trust the new Egyptian rulers. Defense analyst Ron Ben-Yishai told Israel Radio that Egypt's military "now has a country to run. It does not need a war with Israel. This was against its interests before, and even more so now."

Meanwhile, Diplomats from some Middle East nations say the response by the U.S. to events in Egypt has made them question how much U.S. support they would receive in the face of any anti-government demonstrations in their own countries, another expert states.

The Washington Post published an article entitled 'The upsides of Egypt's revolution'. It points out that if Egypt now makes a transition to genuine democracy, its foreign policy might not get much better from Washington's point of view. But it is unlikely to get worse.  The author concludes that Some in Washington worry that Egypt will follow the course of revolutionary Iran. There is some chance of that; sometimes revolutions are hijacked. Regression to authoritarianism is possible, too: witness Ukraine seven years after its Orange Revolution. But the history of the Middle East, and the world, suggests that the tide will run the other way. A democratic Egypt will sooner or later transform its region - and the United
States will be a beneficiary.

Hurriyet issued and article headlined 'Democracy doctrine in Turkish foreign politics.' The author suggests that a critical result of the crisis in Egypt for Turkey is that Ankara, for the first time, has stepped in to demand democracy in a political crisis breaking out in an Arab country. According to him we are about to see a new doctrine in Turkey's Middle Eastern politics. In the end of the article the author poses the question whether Ankara will be able to adopt a bold attitude in favor of democracy with new demands for change likely to emerge in Iran in the near future.