World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (February 23, 2012)

According to the Associated Press, the European Union is preparing regulations which will shut out Iran's banks from a major financial clearinghouse used by practically every country in the world. This action is connected to an unprecedented escalation of economic pressure by the United States and the EU, aimed at halting Iran's suspected drive for nuclear weapons. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, declared last week that it would comply with EU instructions to cut off the Iranian banks, once it has clarity about the new rules. The Senate Banking Committee has passed a measure directing the White House to compel SWIFT to block Iranian entities. The House of Representatives is introducing a tougher measure, which would compel the administration to sanction SWIFT unless it stopped providing services to Iran. The U.S. and EU believe that Iran’s intention is to develop a nuclear arsenal, and Tehran's failure to suspend its nuclear activities has already led to several series of U.N. sanctions. However, Iran claims that its nuclear program is exclusively civilian. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has convinced Iran to return to negotiations with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany about its nuclear program.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published an article headlined “Israeli Minister rejects foreign warnings on Iran.” It says that the Israeli foreign minister had declared that the Jewish state will not bow to foreign pressure in deciding whether to attack Iran. In an interview on Wednesday with Israeli Channel 2 TV News, Avigdor Lieberman dismissed suggestions that American and Russian warnings against attacking Iran would affect Israeli decision making. He said the decision "is not their business" and "the security of the citizens of Israel, the future of the state of Israel, this is the Israeli government's responsibility." Israel has sent a series of hints about its intention to attack Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and others believe rigid economic sanctions must be given time to work. According to the U.S. military chief, an Israeli attack would "not be prudent."

The same agency reported that yesterday the leader of Abkhazia, a Russian-backed Georgian breakaway region, narrowly survived an assassination attempt. President Ankvab’s convoy came under attack yesterday when unidentified assailants detonated a land mine and then sprayed the vehicles with automatic gunfire. The regional police reported that Ankvab wasn’t hurt, but two of his bodyguards died of wounds at a hospital. “Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab was not wounded in the assassination attempt and is now at his desk,” his head of security Anri Bogua said. Ankvab, elected in August, had survived four earlier assassination attempts. Officials in Abkhazia say they are trying to use Russian protection to gain independence and throw off centuries of Georgian domination. But Georgia believes the region is completely dominated by Moscow, which uses it as a “hideout for Russian criminal gangs and corrupt officials,” the article’s author says. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, one of Turkey's best known publishers and human rights activists, Ragip Zarakolu, is again in prison. He was arrested in October, together with dozens of other people suspected in connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). According to the author, although Turkey is often perceived in the U.S. and Europe as a model of democracy at work in a Muslim country, the arrests of journalists are putting a damper on press freedoms that have been steadily eroded in recent years. The arrests of journalists have drawn the attention of the European Union, which Turkey has been trying to join for a long time. Until recently, the response of the Turkish government has generally been to reject the criticism. Thus, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan characterized it as just a "smear campaign" to discredit the judicial system. However, there are signs that Turkey is beginning to take the criticism more seriously. The parliament is scheduled to consider the question of pretrial detention of journalists. And Erdogan said last month that he would consider dismissing cases against journalists accused of crimes that would have sentences of less than five years.