World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (May 5-6, 2011)

Wednesday's attack on the convoy of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which took the life of the Turkish police officer Recep Şahin, have found a serious resonance in the country's press. Hurriyet (“Freedom”) Daily News on May 5th published several articles that observe the situation.

Detailed information, as well as a review of the incident, can be found in the article “Convoy attack in northern Turkey blamed on PKK”. In addition to the situation review, the article contains interviews with the major Turkish officials, who blame the PKK (the leading opposition Kurdish Party) for the incident. “A group of five or six terrorists have claimed responsibility [for the attack] on behalf of the PKK,” the governor of Kastamonu province, Erdoğan Bektas, is quoted as saying. This information is also confirmed by the Turkish edition Sabah (“Morning”).

The Hurriyet Daily also published the response of the Turkish Prime Minister, who blamed the press for escalating the situation and supporting terrorism. This statement was published in an article on the 5th of May “Erdoğan criticizes media for terrorist propaganda”.

A qualitative observation of the Kurdish issue in general, as well as its reflection in the Wednesday convoy-attack incident, can be found in the Hurriyet Daily publication “Dangerous escalation in Turkish politics” (05. 05. 11). The article shows all the seriousness of the Kurdish terrorism problem, especially in anticipation of the June elections. On the one hand, the Kurdish PKK terrorists could be a serious and dangerous force, that can now strike in every part of the country (it is important that the convoy attack was the second diversion to be committed in a region without a Kurdish population this month). On the other hand, the Kurdish population is substantial enough to sabotage the democratic elections.

In this context, another sign of exacerbation in Turkish-Kurdish relations can be seen in an event described by the Hurriyet Daily News. The article “Pro-Kurdish group may boycott Turkey's June 12 elections” reviews the main statements of the Kurdish Block meeting, that was held on the 5th of May in Diyarbakır.

“Kurds have issued their verdict; the solution will come about independently of the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party]. The Kurds’ patience and tolerance have run out,” declaimed Aysel Tuğluk, the deputy chairman of the Democratic Society Congress, or DTK.

According to the Hurriyet Daily News and the pro-Kurdish Fırat (“Euphrates”) News Agency, members of the leading Kurdish parties are definitely dissatisfied by Turkish politics and are ready to arrange a boycott against the democratic elections.

More details and information about Wednesday's incident and Turkish internal issues can be found in the publications on the 6th of May.

Hurriyet publishes “walkie-talkie” conversations between PKK terrorists following their attack on the convoy. “It was a really good attack,” one of the terrorists says.

The Turkish edition Millet (“Nation”) publishes an article containing Prime Minister Erdogan's charges against the Kurdish BDP (Peace and Democracy Party). In his speech on Tuesday, Erdogan said to the leaders of the BDP “You don't get to speak about democracy if you are killing people. It is the bandits' way to come to power by killing.”.

An interesting passage can be found in the publications of the edition Sabah. In a sketch entitled “I will hold my head up high”, devoted to Recep Şahin's funeral ceremony, a speech has been quoted of the officer's wife, who said “I'll hold my head up high. I'll not cry. I'll not please them (the terrorists).”

Today The Washington Post published an article by David Ignatius, headlined “Internal strife emerges as Tehran looks westward”. The article is devoted to the current political situation in Iran, where a feud between the supreme leader of the country, Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become evident. According to Iganatius, these tensions are a consequence of the Arab Spring and the continuing crisis in the region. Both leaders feel that their isolated and aggressive regime is in danger, the author thinks.

The same topic was discussed by The Los Angeles Times’ authors. According to the newspaper, the protests in Iran were provoked by President Ahmadinejad’s harsh policy. Ongoing violence in the country is forcing the Iranian elite to make some changes in the government.

On May 5th The New York Times published an article entitled “Stalled Mission in Libya”. The author regrets that the NATO operation in the country is unlikely to be finished soon and that the allies have different, often controversial, views on the situation and possible ways out of it. He also welcomes President Obama’s decision to to hand over this mission to Canadian and European command.

The British newspaper The Guardian published an interview with Georg Gerster, an outstanding photographer. Gerster believes that the best shot he ever took was one taken in 1976 in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. The photographer said that he asked permission of Iran’s empress to take it:  “At the time, you couldn't charter a plane and start taking photographs from it – you couldn't do that in Iran today, either – so I wrote to the then empress, Farah Pahlavi, to ask her permission. She put a small passenger plane and two pilots at my disposal.”

The Russian English-language newspaper The Moscow Times published an article “Medvedev Snubbing Beslan Mothers Talks”. “President Dmitry Medvedev at the last minute dodged a meeting with mothers who lost their children in the bloody Beslan crisis, possibly fearing that they would criticize his patron and predecessor Vladimir Putin,” the article says. The Beslan tragedy happened in 2004, when terrorists took several hundreds of schoolchildren as hostages. 334 people died in the incident.