The Los Angeles Times published an article concerning the current developments in the Middle East. The material is headlined ‘Libyan regime defiant as protests swell’. According to the author, protesters in Libya have seized control of the country's second-largest city and several eastern towns, Moammar Gadaffi's son acknowledged in comments broadcast early Monday, but he vowed that security forces would fight "to the last bullet" against efforts to end his father's four decades in power. Human rights groups said the death toll in Libya had exceeded 200 after six days of unrest. The author stresses that cities in eastern Libya have long been hotbeds of unrest. In 1996, Gadaffi's security forces massacred a reported 1,000 prisoners at Abu Lim prison in Benghazi, and anti-government anger has simmered ever since. The article sums up current situations in other countries affected by the unrest, including Iran: in Iran, reports of clashes between protesters and security forces in several cities surfaced on opposition news sites on Sunday. The state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Rafsanjani, had been arrested for taking part in an "illegal" opposition rally. She reportedly was released later.
The same news agency reports that Turkish business interests are being looted in Libya. Marauders have attacked Turkish companies in Libya, where they have projects worth more than $15 billion, Turkey's foreign trade minister said on Monday, as hundreds of Turks were evacuated from the country.
Also, the LA Times cited Reuters media agency reporting on North Caucasian developments: three bombs were defused in Russia's violence-plagued North Caucasus on Sunday, a news agency reported, as authorities stepped up security days after militants shot dead five people. Police discovered the three bombs, containing an estimated 70 kg (154 lb) of TNT, in a car parked near a hotel in a village in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The correspondent sums up that the authorities were enforcing tighter security under a so-called counter-terrorism operation regime. The insurgency has spread from separatist Chechnya in the past decade to other North Caucasus provinces. Most attacks have targeted police, security forces and government officials. They threaten to undermine the Kremlin's plans to draw in investment and tourists by developing ski resorts in the region west of Sochi, where Russia is to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The New York Times reports that Iran on Saturday freed two German journalists who were arrested four months ago after they interviewed the son of an Iranian woman condemned to death by stoning for adultery. Also, three journalists from a website critical of the government were jailed and charged on Friday as part of an investigation into accusations that the military plotted to overthrow Turkey’s pro-Islamic government in 2003. The moves came as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticized the new American ambassador here for his comments on the case. Prosecutors have arrested dozens of military and former military personnel over the suspected plot, which they say was aimed at overthrowing Mr. Erdogan’s government after his party came to power in 2002. Leaders of Turkey’s armed forces have denied that any such plan existed.
The Washington Post newspaper also keeps its readers informed on the situation in Arab countries. According to the newspaper’s expert, as fresh protests erupted across the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday, embattled leaders in the region struggled to contain their discontented masses, deploying a wide variety of tactics - from offers of dialogue to brutal crackdowns - to suppress the pro-democracy forces unleashed by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. The author describes the current situation in several countries affected by the riots and cites several serious concerns in the field of human rights violations.
The same news agency cited Reuters’ expert opinion on current Arabian unrest: Egypt's revolution and upheavals across the region herald a shift in the balance of power between Israel and its neighbours, as Arabs push out autocrats who often put U.S. and European ties before their people's demands.
On Sunday the Guardian published an article subtitled “European gas pipeline costs double.” It is devoted to the Nabucco pipeline project. Plans to build a gas pipeline to the heart of Europe to reduce dependence on Russian imports have been dealt a blow after estimated costs almost doubled. Doubts are already growing over Nabucco's viability because it aims to draw in gas from undeveloped fields in Turkmenistan and Iraq, as well as Azerbaijan. Only a third of Nabucco's capacity would be used initially when BP's Shakh Deniz II project in Azerbaijan is due to come on stream in 2017.
The other article published by the Guardian on Sunday analyses developments which are taking place in the Arab world these days. “Anger on the streets: unrest in Iran, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco and China.” Thousands took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier and Marrakech in peaceful protests demanding a new constitution, a change in government and an end to corruption. In Iran riot police and plainclothes basiji militia fired teargas and wielded batons to disperse thousands of defiant protesters commemorating the death of two pro-democracy demonstrators, killed during anti-government protests last week. In Algeria police thwarted a rally by thousands of pro-democracy supporters, breaking up the crowd into isolated groups to keep them from marching.
Today the Guardian reports that an Iranian drama, which follows the aftermath of the disintegration of a marriage after 15 years, won top prize at the Berlin film festival at the weekend. Farhadi's film centres on a middle-class couple who separate, and a conflict which erupts along class lines when the husband takes the decision to hire a poor and deeply religious woman to act as carer for his elderly father. In accepting the award, the director paid tribute to countryman Jafar Panahi, who was unable to sit on the Berlin jury following his incarceration for six years and a film-making ban by the Iranian government in December.
The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published an article headlined “Turkey's few women's shelters struggle to meet huge need for services” on Saturday. It says that a lack of responsibility on the part of municipal authorities around Turkey is partly to blame for the low number of women’s shelters in the country, an official from a prominent women’s support group has said. There are currently only 65 women's shelters in Turkey, but there would be roughly 1,400 if the law were properly implemented.
On Sunday Hurriyet reported about the recent developments in the Middle East. The author of the article believes that Turkey’s regional engagement has to develop into a real strategy. For the time being the declared policy doesn’t go beyond a justification of aims. Sustainability and efficiency require strategic thinking. The weaker the power, the more important is the strategy. Strategy is about rationalization, about choices between what can be afforded and what is needed. As paradoxical as it may seem, another major obstacle hampering the sustainability and efficiency of Turkey’s activism in the Middle East is the poor imperial memory. There is a pressing need to rebuild social ties and information channels and stop nurturing a certain sense of superiority and arrogance in the region.
“Iranian warships' passage through Suez put back two days” is an article published by Hurriyet on Monday. It says that the passage of two Iranian naval ships through the Suez Canal has been put back to Wednesday. Earlier on Sunday, after a weekly meeting of his cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the ships' arrival in the region as an Iranian power play. But the Iranian side said that this will be a routine visit, within international law, in line with the cooperation between Iran and Syria, who have strategic ties.
On Saturday the Iranian information agency Press TV published an article headlined “Iran says enemy does not fear bombs.” It says that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the enemies of the Iranian nation have no fear of weapons, missiles and bombs, yet they accuse the country of pursuing a military nuclear program. Iran has repeatedly declared the civilian nature of its nuclear program, citing reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency that have found no evidence of divergence in Tehran's nuclear activities.
The same agency on Sunday published a statement of the foreign minister of Iran that Iran is optimistic about Iraq's future. “Regional developments increase the necessity of expanding ties between the two countries,” Shahristani said, adding that although relations between Iran and Iraq are already increasing, the officials of the two countries should prepare more effective grounds for cooperation. The Iraqi deputy prime minister added that there are no limitations or obstacles for the activity of Iranian companies in Iraq, and Baghdad welcomes their presence in the country.
Today Press TV published an analysis of the current events in the Middle East, “The renaissance of the Arab world?” The author writes that the Arab world's uprising indisputably indicates that the people of the region are being awakened from their slumber of ignorance and indifference. They will no longer tolerate tyrannical governments, which confiscate and sequester their rights. They want freedom of expression, improved living conditions, expanded relations with the outside world and the right to self-determination. The Middle East revolution shows that the people in the region are no longer indifferent to their destiny. They want the rights they have been deprived of for decades.
