World press on Syrian crisis and Turkey's role in Middle East (April 27, 2012)

The Guardian published another article devoted to the ungoing Syrian civil war. The article was headlined "French-led push for tougher stand on Syria." "France has adopted a forward position on the crisis by insisting that it will wait no longer than 5 May before moving to seek a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN charter to demand the Syrian regime stop its campaign against dissent. Such a move could mean seeking the use of force though it is more likely to demand non-military punitive measures," the article reads. The author expresses doubts that the UN monitoring mission will be successful, drawing comparisons with an abortive Arab League monitoring mission in December that ended in failure.

Hurriyet published an article devoted to Turkey's current role in the Middle East. The author of the article, Burak Bekdil, believes that the neo-Ottomans in Ankara have skillfully been able to return to their Ottoman past, but not to the glory days, but rather the empire’s days of decline. "The Turks vigorously played the role of leader of the Muslim world. But now that the Muslim world is deeply engaged in a growing proxy war along the Shia-Sunni fault line and Turkey has found itself in a Sunni alliance, it will have to be content with playing the role of the leader of one Muslim sect only. That’s a much smaller cake, but one cannot pretend to be all things at all times," the author says. "The Sunni Arabs are in an alliance of convenience with the Sunni Turks, perfectly aware that this, too, is merely a temporary coalition. Once the Sunni-Shia divide ends up somewhere definite, Turkey will no longer find its Sunni brothers around. Instead, this time the Sunni brothers will see the Turks as a rival and a threat to their Arab Sunni brotherhood – unless of course Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan can prove that the Turks are in fact Arabs!" the article reads.